Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, David Garcia and Distributed Proofreaders
THE BAY STATE MONTHLY
A Massachusetts Magazine
of
LITERATURE, HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND STATE PROGRESS
VOLUME I.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
(This table of contents alos contains listings
for articles in the other issues.)
Abbott, Josiah Gardner _John Hatch George_
An Incident of Sixteen Hundred and Eighty-Six _Mellen Chamberlain_
Ansart, Louis _Clara Clayton_
Arthur, Chester Alan _Ben: Perley Poore_
Beacon Hill Before the Houses _David M. Balfour_
Boston Tea-Party, The
Boston, The First Schoolmaster of _Elizabeth Porter Gould_
Boston, The Siege of, Developed _Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A.,
LL.D._
Boston Young Men's Christian Association, The _Russell Sturgis,
Jr._
Boundary Lines of Old Groton, The _Samuel Abbott Green, M.D._
British Force and the Leading Losses in the Revolution
British Losses in the Revolution
Bunker Hill _Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D._
Butler, Benjamin Franklin
Chelsea _William E. McClintock, C.E._
Defence of New York, 1776, The _Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D._
Dungeon Rock, Lynn _Frank P. Harriman_
Early Harvard _Josiah Layfayette Seward, A.M._
Esoteric Buddhism.--A Review _Lucius H. Buckingham, Ph.D._
Fac-Simile Reprint of Daniel Webster's Fourth-of-July Oration, Delivered
in 1800.
Family Immigration to New England, The _Thomas W. Bicknell, LL.D._
First Baptist Church in Massachusetts, The _Thomas W. Bicknell,
LL.D._
First Schoolmaster of Boston, The _Elizabeth Porter Gould_
From the White Horse to Little Rhody _Charles M. Barrows_
Fuller, George _Sidney Dickinson_
Gifts to Colleges and Universities _Charles F. Thwing_
Groton, The Boundary Lines of Old _Samuel Abbott Green, M.D._
Groton, The Old Stores and the Post-Offices of _Samuel Abbott Green,
M.D._
Groton, The Old Taverns and Stage-Coaches of _Samuel Abbott Green,
M.D._
Harvard, Early _Josiah Lafayette Seward, A.M._
Historical Notes
Historic Trees: The Washington Elm; The Eliot Oak _L.L. Dame_
Lancaster in Acadie and the Acadiens in Lancaster _Henry S. Nourse_
Lovewell's War _John N. McClintock, A.M._
Lowell
Loyalists of Lancaster, The _Henry S. Nourse_
Massachusetts, The First Baptist Church in _Thomas W. Bicknell,
LL.D._
Massachusetts, Young Men's Christian Associations of _Russell Sturgis,
Jr._
New England, The Family Immigration to _Thomas W. Bicknell, LL.D._
New England Town-House, The _J.B. Sewall_
New York, 1776, The Defence of _Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D._
Ohio Floods, The _George E. Fencks_
Old Stores and the Post-Office of Groton, The _Samuel Abbott Green,
M.D._
Old Taverns and Stage-Coaches of Groton, The _Samuel Abbott Green,
M.D._
One Summer.--A Reminiscence _Annie Wentworth Baer_
Perkins, Captain George Hamilton _George E. Belknap, U.S.N._
Poet of the Bells, The _E.H. Goss_
Railway Mail Service, The _Thomas P. Cheney_
Reuben Tracy's Vacation Trips _Elizabeth Porter Gould_
Revolution, British Force and Leading Losses in the
Revolution, British Losses in the
Rice, Alexander Hamilton _Daniel B. Hagar, Ph.D._
Siege of Boston Developed, The _Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D._
Town and City Histories _Robert Luce_
Webster, Colonel Fletcher _Charles Cowley, LL.D._
Webster, Daniel, Fourth-of-July Oration of
Wilder, Marshall P. _John Ward Dean, A.M._
Young Men's Christian Associations _Russell Sturgis, Jr._
Young Men's Christian Associations of Massachusetts _Russell Sturgis,
Jr._
POETRY.
Bells of Bethlehem, The _James T. Fields_
His Greatest Triumph _Henrietta E. Page_
Rent Veil, The _Henry B. Carrington_
Song of the Winds _Henry B. Carrington_
Tuberoses _Laura Garland Carr_
Yesterday _Kate L. Brown_
[Illustration: Marshall P. Wilder]
THE BAY STATE MONTHLY.
_A Massachusetts Magazine_
VOL. I. JANUARY, 1884. No. 1.
* * * * *
Hon. MARSHALL P. WILDER, Ph.D.
BY JOHN WARD DEAN, A.M.
[Librarian of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.]
The editors of THE BAY STATE MONTHLY, having decided to begin in its
pages a series of articles devoted to the material advancement and
prosperity of Massachusetts, and the record of her past greatness, have
selected the Honorable Marshall Pinckney Wilder as a representative man,
and have decided that his memoir shall be the initial article in the
series, and also in this periodical. He has as a merchant won for
himself a high position, and by his enterprise has essentially advanced
the business of the city and the State. He has also been active in
developing our manufacturing industries, while his name is first on all
lips when those who have increased the products of the soil are named.
His life affords a striking example of what can be achieved by
concentration of power and unconquerable perseverance. The bare
enumeration of the important positions he has held and still holds, and
the self-sacrificing labors he has performed, is abundant evidence of
the extraordinary talent and ability, and the personal power and
influence, which have enabled him to take a front rank as a benefactor
to mankind.
MARSHALL PINCKNEY WILDER, whose Christian names were given in honor of
Chief-Justice Marshall and General Pinckney, eminent statesmen at the
time he was born, was the eldest son of Samuel Locke Wilder, Esq., of
Rindge, New Hampshire, and was born in that town, September 22, 1798.
His father, a nephew of the Reverend Samuel Locke, D.D., president of
Harvard College, for whom he was named, was thirteen years a
representative in the New Hampshire legislature, a member of the
Congregational church in Rindge, and held important town offices there.
His mother, Anna, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Crombie) Sherwin
(married May 2, 1797), a lady of great moral worth, was, as her son is,
a warm admirer of the beauties of nature.
The Wilders are an ancient English family, which The Book of the
Wilders, published a few years ago, traces to Nicholas Wilder, a
military chieftain in the army of the Earl of Richmond at the battle of
Bosworth, 1485. There is strong presumptive evidence that the American
family is an offshoot from this. President Chadbourne, the author of The
Book of the Wilders, in his life of Colonel Wilder gives reasons for
this opinion. The paternal ancestors of Colonel Wilder in this country
performed meritorious services in the Indian wars, in the American
Revolution, and in Shays' Rebellion. His grandfather was one of the
seven delegates from the county of Worcester, in the Massachusetts
convention of 1788, for ratifying the Constitution of the United States,
who voted in favor of it. Isaac Goodwin, Esq., in The Worcester
Magazine, vol. ii, page 45, bears this testimony: "Of all the ancient
Lancaster families, there is no one that has sustained so many important
offices as that of Wilder,"
At the age of four, Marshall was sent to school, and at twelve he
entered New Ipswich Academy, his father desiring to give him a
collegiate education, with reference to a profession. When he reached
the age of sixteen, his father gave him the choice, either to qualify
himself for a farmer, or for a merchant, or to fit for college. He chose
to be a farmer; and to this choice may we attribute in no small degree
the mental and physical energy which has distinguished so many years of
his life. But the business of his father increased so much that he was
taken into the the store. He there acquired such habits of industry that
at the age of twenty-one he became a partner, and was appointed
postmaster of Rindge.
In 1825, he sought a wider field of action and removed to Boston. Here
be began business under the firm-name of Wilder and Payson, in Union
Street; then as Wilder and Smith, in North Market Street; and next in
his own name at No. 3 Central Wharf. In 1837, he became a partner in the
commission house of Parker, Blanchard, and Wilder, Water Street; next
Parker, Wilder, and Parker, Pearl Street; and since Parker, Wilder, and
Company, Winthrop Square, having continued until this time in the same
house for forty-seven years. Mr. Wilder has lived to be the oldest
commission merchant in domestic fabrics in active business in Boston. He
has passed through various crises of commercial embarrassments, and yet
he has never failed to meet his obligations. He was an original director
in the Hamilton (now Hamilton National) Bank and in the National
Insurance Company. The former trust he has held for fifty-two years, and
the latter for forty years. He has been a director in the New England
Mutual Life Insurance Company for nearly forty years, and also a
director in other similar institutions.
But trade and the acquisition of wealth have not been the all-engrossing
pursuits of his life. His inherent love of rural pursuits led him, in
1832, to purchase his present estate in Dorchester, originally that of
Governor Increase Sumner, where, after devoting a proper time to
business, he has given his leisure to horticulture and agriculture He
has spared no expense, he has rested from no efforts, to instil into the
public mind a love of an employment so honorable and useful. He has
cultivated his own grounds, imported seeds, plants, and trees, and
endeavored by his example to encourage labor and elevate the rank of the
husbandman. His garden, greenhouses, and a forest of fruit-trees have
occupied the time he could spare from business, and here he has
prosecuted his favorite investigations, year after year, for half a
century, to the present day.
Soon after the Massachusetts Horticultural Society was formed, Mr.
Wilder was associated with the late General Henry A.S. Dearborn, its
first president, and from that time till now has been one of its most
efficient members, constantly attending its meetings, taking part in its
business and discussions, and contributing largely to its exhibitions.
Four years since, he delivered the oration on the occasion of its
semi-centennial. One of the most important acts of this society was the
purchase of Mount Auburn for a cemetery and an ornamental garden. On the
separation of the cemetery from the society, in 1835, through Mr.
Wilder's influence committees were appointed by the two corporations,
Judge Story being chairman of the cemetery committee, and Mr. Wilder of
the society committee. The situation was fraught with great
difficulties; but Mr. Wilder's conservative course, everywhere
acknowledged, overcame them all and enabled the society to erect an
elegant hall in School Street, and afterward the splendid building it
now occupies in Tremont Street, the most magnificent horticultural hall
in the world. It has a library which is everywhere acknowledged to be
the best horticultural library anywhere. In 1840, he was chosen
president, and held the office for eight successive years. During his
presidency the hall in School Street was erected, and two triennial
festivals were held in Faneuil Hall, which are particularly worthy of
notice. The first was opened September 11, 1845, and the second on the
fiftieth anniversary of his birth, September 22, 1848, when he retired
from the office of president, and the society voted him a silver pitcher
valued at one hundred and fifty dollars, and caused his portrait to be
placed in its hall. As president of this association he headed a
circular for a convention of fruit-growers, which was held in New York,
October 10. 1848, when the American Pomological Society was formed. He
was chosen its first president, and he still holds that office, being in
his thirty-third year of service. Its biennial meetings have been held
in New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Boston, Rochester, St. Louis,
Richmond, Chicago, and Baltimore; and it will hold its next meeting in
Detroit. On these occasions President Wilder has made appropriate
addresses. The last meeting was held, September, 1883, in Philadelphia,
when his last address was delivered. In this address, with his usual
foresight, he proposed a grand reform in the nomenclature of fruits for
our country, and asked the co-operation of other nations in this reform.
In February, 1849, the Norfolk Agricultural Society was formed. Mr.
Wilder was chosen president, and the Honorable Charles Francis Adams,
vice-president. Before this society his first address on agricultural
education was delivered. This was a memorable occasion. There were then
present, George N. Briggs, the governor, and John Reed, the
lieutenant-governor, of the State, Daniel Webster, Edward Everett,
Horace Mann, Levi Lincoln, Josiah Quincy, president of Harvard
University, General Henry A.S. Dearborn, Governor Isaac Hill, of New
Hampshire, the Reverend John Pierpont, Josiah Quincy, Jr., Charles
Francis Adams, and Robert C. Winthrop,--of which galaxy of eminent men,
the last two only are now living. It was the first general effort in
that cause in this country. He was president twenty years, and on his
retirement he was constituted honorary president, and a resolution was
passed recognizing his eminent ability and usefulness in promoting the
arts of horticulture and agriculture, and his personal excellence in
every department of life. He next directed his efforts to establishing
the Massachusetts board of agriculture, organized as the Massachusetts
Central Board of Agriculture, at a meeting of delegates of agricultural
societies in the State, held at the State House, September, 1851, in
response to a circular issued by him as president of the Norfolk
Agricultural Society. He was elected president, and held the office till
1852, when it became a department of the State, and he is now the senior
member of that board. In 1858, the Massachusetts School of Agriculture
was incorporated, and he was chosen president; but before the school was
opened Congress granted land to the several States for agricultural
colleges, and in 1865 the Legislature incorporated the Massachusetts
Agricultural College. He was named the first trustee. In 1871, the first
class was graduated, and in 1878 he had the honor of conferring the
degree of Bachelor of Science on twenty young gentlemen graduates. He
delivered addresses on both occasions. In 1852, he issued a circular in
behalf of several States for a national meeting at Washington, which was
fully attended, and where the United States Agricultural Society was
organized. Daniel Webster and a host of distinguished men assisted in
its formation. This society, of which he was president for the first six
years, exercised a beneficial influence till the breaking out of the
late Civil War. On Mr. Wilder's retirement he received the gold medal of
honor and a service of silver plate. He is a member of many other
horticultural and agricultural societies in this and foreign lands.
Colonel Wilder, at an early age, took an interest in military affairs.
At sixteen he was enrolled in the New Hampshire militia, and at
twenty-one he was commissioned adjutant. He organized and equipped the
Rindge Light Infantry, and was chosen its captain. At twenty-five five
he was elected lieutenant-colonel, and at twenty-six was commissioned as
colonel of the Twelfth Regiment.
Soon after his removal to Boston he joined the Ancient and Honorable
Artillery Company. In 1856, he was chosen commander of the corps, being
the one hundred and fifty-fifth in command. He had four times previously
declined nominations. He entered into correspondence with Prince Albert,
commander of the Royal Artillery Company of London, founded in 1537, of
which this corps, chartered in 1638, is the only offspring. This
correspondence established a friendly intercourse between the two
companies. In June, 1857, Prince Albert was chosen a special honorary
member of our company, and twenty-one years later, in 1878, Colonel
Wilder, who then celebrated the fiftieth or golden anniversary of his
own membership, nominated the Prince of Wales, the present commander of
the London company, as an honorary member. Both were commanders of the
Honorable Artillery Company of London when chosen. The late elegantly
illustrated history of the London company contains a portrait of Colonel
Wilder as he appeared in full uniform on that occasion.
In 1839, he was induced to serve for a single term in the Massachusetts
Legislature, as a representative for the town of Dorchester. In 1849, he
was elected a member of Governor Briggs's Council, and the year
following a member of the senate and its president, and he is the the
oldest ex-president of the senate living. In 1860, he was the member for
New England of the national committee of the "Constitutional Union
Party," and attended, as chairman of the Massachusetts delegation, the
national convention in Baltimore, where John Bell and Edward Everett
were nominated for President and Vice-President of the United States.
He was initiated in Charity Lodge, No. 18, in Troy, New Hampshire, at
the age of twenty-five, exalted to the Royal Arch Chapter, Cheshire No.
4, and knighted in the Boston Encampment. He was deputy grand master of
the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and was one of the six thousand Masons
who signed, December 31, 1831, the celebrated "Declaration of the
Freemasons of Boston and Vicinity"; and at the fiftieth anniversary of
that event, which was celebrated in Boston two years ago, Mr. Wilder
responded for the survivors, six of the signers being present. He has
received all the Masonic degrees, including the 33d, or highest and last
honor of the fraternity. At the World's Masonic Convention, in 1867, at
Paris, he was the only delegate from the United States who spoke at the
banquet.
On the seventh of November, 1849, a festival of the Sons of New
Hampshire was celebrated in Boston. The Honorable Daniel Webster
presided, and Mr. Wilder was the first vice-president. Fifteen hundred
sons of the Granite State were present. The association again met on the
twenty-ninth of October, 1852, to participate in the obsequies of Mr.
Webster at Faneuil Hall. On this occasion the legislature, and other
citizens, of New Hampshire were received at the Lowell railway-station,
and were addressed by Mr. Wilder in behalf of sons of that State
resident in Boston.
The Sons celebrated their second festival, November 2, 1853, at which
Mr. Wilder occupied the chair as president, and delivered one of his
most eloquent speeches. They assembled again, on June 20, 1861, to
receive and welcome a New Hampshire regiment of volunteers, and escort
them to the Music Hall, where Mr. Wilder addressed them in a patriotic
speech on their departure for the field of battle.
The two hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of
Dorchester was celebrated on the Fourth of July, 1855. The oration was
by Edward Everett; Mr. Wilder presided, and delivered an able address.
On the central tablet of the great pavilion was this inscription:
"Marshall P. Wilder, president of the day. Blessed is he that turneth
the waste places into a garden, and maketh the wilderness to blossom as
a rose."
In January, 1868, he was solicited to take the office of president of
the New England Historic Genealogical Society, vacated by the death of
Governor Andrew. He was unanimously elected, and is now serving the
seventeenth year of his presidency. At every annual meeting he has
delivered an appropriate address. In his first address he urged the
importance of procuring a suitable building for the society. In 1870, he
said: "The time has now arrived when absolute necessity, public
sentiment, and personal obligations, demand that this work be done, and
done quickly." Feeling himself pledged by this address, he, as chairman
of the committee then appointed, devoted three months entirely to the
object of soliciting funds, during which time more than forty thousand
dollars was generously contributed by friends of the association; and
thus the handsome edifice at No. 18 Somerset Street was procured. This
building was dedicated to the use of the society, March 18, 1871. He has
since obtained donations, amounting to upward of twelve thousand
dollars, as a fund for paying the salary of the librarian.
In 1859, he presided at the first public meeting called in Boston, in
regard to the collocation of institutions on the Back Bay lands, where
the splendid edifices of the Boston Society of Natural History and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology now stand. Of the latter
institution he has been a vice-president, and the chairman of its
Society of Arts, and a director from the beginning. General Francis A.
Walker, the present president of the Institute, bore this testimony to
his efforts in its behalf at the in banquet to Mr. Wilder on his
eighty-fifth anniversary: "Through all the early efforts to attract the
attention of the legislature and the people to the importance of
industrial and art education, and through the severe struggles which so
painfully tried the courage and the faith even of those who most
strongly and ardently believed in the mission of the Institute, as well
as through the happier years of fruition, while the efforts put forth in
the days of darkness and despondency were bearing their harvest of
success and fame, Colonel Wilder was through all one of the most
constant of the members of the government in his attendance; one of the
most hopeful in his views of the future of the school; ever a wise
counsellor and a steadfast ally."
He was one of the twelve representative men appointed to receive the
Prince of Wales in 1860, at the banquet given him in Boston, Edward
Everett being chairman of the committee; also one of the commissioners
in behalf of the Universal Exposition in Paris, 1867, when he was placed
at the head of the committee on horticulture and the cultivation and
products of the vine, the report of which was published by act of
Congress.
In 1869, he made a trip to the South, for the purpose of examining its
resources; and in 1870, with a large party, he visited California. The
result of Mr. Wilder's observations has been given to the public in a
lecture before the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, which was
repeated before the Boston Mercantile Library Association, Amherst
College, the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Dartmouth College, the
Horticultural Society, the merchants of Philadelphia, and bodies in
other places.
His published speeches and writings now amount to nearly one hundred in
number. A list to the year 1873 is printed in the Cyclopaedia of
American Literature. Dartmouth College, as a testimonial to his services
in science and literature, conferred upon him, in the year 1877, the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
The Honorable Paul A. Chadbourne, LL.D., late president of Williams
College in a recent Memoir of Mr. Wilder remarks: "The interest which
Colonel Wilder has always manifested in the progress of education, as
well as the value and felicitous style of his numerous writings, would
lead one to infer at once that his varied knowledge and culture are the
results of college education. But he is only another illustrious example
of the men who, with only small indebtedness to schools, have proved to
the world that real men can make themselves known as such without the
aid of the college, as we have abundantly learned that the college can
never make a man of one who has not in him the elements of noble manhood
before he enters its halls."
In 1820, Mr. Wilder married Miss Tryphosa Jewett, daughter of Dr.
Stephen Jewett, of Rindge, a lady of great personal attractions. She
died on a visit to that town, July 21, 1831, leaving four children. On
the twenty-ninth of August, 1833, Mr. Wilder was united to Miss Abigail,
daughter of Captain David Baker of Franklin, Massachusetts, a lady of
education, accomplishments, and piety, who died of consumption, April 4,
1854, leaving five children. He was married a third time on the eighth
of September, 1855, to her sister, Miss Julia Baker, who was admirably
qualified to console him and make his dwelling cheerful, and who has two
sons, both living. No man has been more blessed in domestic life. We
know not where there would be a more pleasing picture of peace and
contentment exhibited than is found in this happy family. In all his
pursuits and avocations, Mr. Wilder seems to have realized and practised
that grand principle, which has such a bearing and influence on the
whole course of life--the philosophy of habit, a power almost omnipotent
for good or evil. His leisure hours he devotes to his pen, which already
has filled several large volumes with descriptions and delineations of
fruits and flowers, proved under his own inspection, and other matters
pertaining to his various relations in life.
Colonel Wilder has shown us by his life what an individual may
accomplish by industry, perseverance, and the concentration of the
intellectual powers on grand objects. Without these, no talent, no mere
good fortune could have placed him in the high position he has attained
as a public benefactor. He has been pre-eminent in the establishment and
development of institutions. Few gentlemen have been called upon so
often, and upon such various occasions, to take the chair at public
meetings or preside over constituted societies. Few have acquitted
themselves so happily, whether dignity of presence, amenity of address,
fluency of speech, or dispatch of business, be taken into consideration.
As a presiding officer he seems "to the manner born." His personal
influence has been able to magnetize a half-dying body into new and
active life. This strong personal characteristic is especially remarked
among his friends. No one can approach him in doubt, in despondency, or
in embarrassment, and leave him without a higher hope, a stronger
courage, and a manlier faith in himself. The energy which has impelled
him to labor still exists.
Mr. Wilder is now president of the New England Historic Genealogical and
Society, the American Pomological Society, and the Massachusetts
Agricultural Club. He is senior trustee of the Massachusetts
Agricultural College, and senior member of the State Board of
Agriculture, and of the executive committee of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society. He is senior director in the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, the Hamilton National Bank, the New England
Mutual Life Insurance Company, and the Home Savings Bank. He is an
honorary member of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain; a
corresponding member of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, and
the Societe Centrale d' Horticulture of France; and a fellow of the
Reale Accademia Araldica Italiana of Pisa.
Well did Governor Bullock on a public occasion speak of Mr. Wilder as
"one who has applied the results of his well-earned commercial earnings
so liberally that in every household and at every fireside in America,
when the golden fruits of summer and autumn gladden the sideboard and
the hearthstone, his name, his generosity, and his labors are known and
honored." He is also known and honored abroad. The London Gardener's
Chronicle, the leading agricultural paper in Europe, in April, 1872,
gave his portrait and a sketch of his life, in which is introduced the
following merited compliment:--
"We are glad to have the opportunity of laying before our readers the
portrait of one of the most distinguished of transatlantic
horticulturists, and one who, by his zeal, industry, and determination,
has not only conferred lasting benefits on his native country, but has
by his careful experiments in hybridization and fruit-culture laid the
horticulturists of all nations under heavy obligations to him. The name
and reputation of Marshall P. Wilder is as highly esteemed in Great
Britain as they are in America."
In closing this sketch, we may remark that complimentary banquets were
given him on the eightieth and the eighty-fifth anniversaries of his
birth. On the former occasion, September 22, 1878, the Reverend James H.
Means, D.D., his pastor for nearly thirty years, the Honorable Charles
L. Flint, secretary of the Board of Agriculture, the Honorable John
Phelps Putnam, judge of the Massachusetts Superior Court, and others,
paid tributes to the high moral character, the benevolent disposition,
and the eminent services, of the honored guest of the evening.
The last banquet, September 22, 1883, on his completing the ripe age of
eighty-five, was a much more important occasion. The banquet was held,
as the former was, at the Parker House, in Boston, and over one hundred
gentlemen participated, among whom were some of the most distinguished
persons in this and other States. Charles H.B. Breck, Esq.,
vice-president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society presided, and
the venerable Reverend Dr. George W. Blagden invoked a blessing. Mr.
Breck addressed Mr. Wilder, who responded. Addresses were then made by a
number of Mr. Wilder's friends, among them the Honorable Alexander H.
Rice and the Honorable Nathaniel P. Banks, ex-governors of
Massachusetts, his Honor Oliver Ames, lieutenant-governor of the State,
his Honor Albert Palmer, mayor of Boston, General Joshua L. Chamberlain,
ex-governor of Maine, the Honorable Frederick Smyth, ex-governor of New
Hampshire, Professor J.C. Greenough, president of the Massachusetts
Agricultural College, General Francis A. Walker, president of the
Institute of Technology, the Honorable Francis B. Hayes, president of
the Horticultural Society, the Reverend Edmund F. Slafter, corresponding
secretary of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, John E.
Russell, secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, and Major Ben:
Perley Poore, secretary of the United States Agricultural Society, and
ex-commander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. Other
societies with which Mr. Wilder is connected were also represented, as
the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, the New
England Agricultural Society, the New England Life Insurance Company,
the Hamilton Bank, the Home Savings Bank, the Grand Lodge of Masons, and
the Second Church of Dorchester. Letters were received from the
Honorable Robert C. Winthrop, president of the Massachusetts Historical
Society, his Excellency Benjamin F. Butler, governor, and the Honorables
John D. Long, William Claflin, and Thomas Talbot, ex-governors of the
State, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Honorable Dr. George B. Loring,
United States Commissioner of Agriculture, and the Honorable Francis W.
Bird, president of the Bird Club, The addresses and letters are to be
printed in full. A few extracts follow:
Dr. Holmes referred to Mr. Wilder as: "The venerable and venerated
friend who has outlived the fruits of fourscore seasons, and is still
ripening as if his life were all summer."
Mr. Winthrop wrote: "No other man has done so much for our fields and
gardens and orchards. He has distinguished himself in many other lines
of life, and his relations to the Legislature of Massachusetts and to
the Historic Genealogical Society will not soon be forgotten. But his
name will have its most enduring and most enviable association with the
flowers and fruits for whose culture he was foremost in striving, both
by precept and example. He deserves a grateful remembrance as long as a
fine pear is relished or a brilliant bouquet admired."
Governor Rice said: "There is hardly a public enterprise of the last
three generations, scarcely a pursuit in life, or an institution of
patriotism, discipline, or charity, that does not bear the signet of his
touch and feel the vigor of his co-operation. Why, sir, it may be said,
almost with literal truth, that the trees which this great arborist has
planted and cultivated and loved are not more numerous than the
evidences of his handiwork in all the useful and beneficent departments
of life; and all the flowers that shall grow to the end of time ought to
bear fragrance to his memory."
Mayor Palmer said: "Time would fail me to recount his great and
honorable services to society and the State. It must suffice to say that
no name of this century is written more imperishably in the affection
and esteem of Boston and Massachusetts than the name of him, our honored
guest."
Dr. Loring wrote: "It is with pride and satisfaction that the business
associations of the city of Boston can point to him as a representative
of that mercantile integrity which gives that city its distinguished
position among the great commercial centres of the world."
Governor Banks said: "I can scarcely enumerate, much less analyze, the
numerous and important social and national enterprises which make the
character and career of our distinguished guest illustrious."
Governor Chamberlain said: "We rejoice in this honored old age,--this
youth, rounded, beautified, and sweetened into supreme manhood; and we
rejoice also that it shall remain for after times an example and
inspiration for all who would live true lives, and win the honor that
comes here and hereafter to noble character."
President Greenough thus spoke:--"The line of buildings which to-day at
Amherst graces one of the fairest landscapes in New England, and the
sound and practical education which they were built to secure, are to be
a lasting monument to his foresight, his patriotism, and his eloquent
persuasion."
Mr. Russell said: "To him the agriculture of the Commonwealth owes a
debt that can never be paid; the records of our board are a monument of
his good works more enduring than brass. And, sir, in view of his
venerable years, so lightly borne, his interest in all the active
affairs of men, and his continued powers of social enjoyment, I may well
repeat the wish of the poet Horace, expressed in one of his invocations
to the Emperor Augustus: 'Serus in coelum redeas.'"
Major Poore said: "Mr. President, I am confident that the distinguished
gentlemen around these tables will long remember to-night, and recall
with pleasure its varied homages to Colonel Wilder, thankful that we
have so pure a shrine, so bright an oracle, as the common property of
all who reverence virtue, admire manhood, or aspire to noble deeds.
Succeeding years will not dim the freshness of Colonel Wilder's fame;
and the more frequently we drink at this fountain, the sweeter we shall
find its waters.
'You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.'"
* * * * *
THE OLD TAVERNS AND STAGE-COACHES OF GROTON.
BY THE HON. SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D.
It has been said that there is nothing contrived by man which has
produced so much happiness as a good tavern. Without granting or denying
the statement, all will agree that many good times have been passed
around the cheerful hearth of the old-fashioned inn.
The earliest tavern in Groton, of which there is any record or
tradition, was kept by Samuel Bowers, Jr., in the house lately and for a
long time occupied by the Champney family. Mr. Bowers was born in Groton
on December 21, 1711, and, according to his tombstone, died on "the
Sixteenth Day of December Anno Domini 1768. Half a hour after Three of
the Clock in ye Afternoon, and in the Fifty Eight year of his age." He
kept the house during many years, and was known in the neighborhood as
"land'urd Bowers,"--the innkeeper of that period being generally
addressed by the title of landlord. I do not know who succeeded him in
his useful and important functions.
The next tavern of which I have any knowledge was the one kept by
Captain Jonathan Keep, during the latter part of the Revolution. In The
Independent Chronicle (Boston), February 15, 1781, the Committee of the
General Court for the sale of confiscated property in Middlesex County,
advertise the estate of Dr. Joseph Adams, of Townsend, to be sold "at
Mr. Keep's, innholder in Groton." This tavern has now been kept as an
inn during more than a century. It was originally built for a
dwelling-house, and, before the Revolution, occupied by the Reverend
Samuel Dana; though since that time it has been lengthened in front and
otherwise considerably enlarged. Captain Keep was followed by the
brothers Isaiah and Joseph Hall, who were the landlords as early as the
year 1798. They were succeeded in 1825 by Joseph Hoar, who had just sold
the Emerson tavern, at the other end of the village street. He kept it
for nearly twenty years,--excepting the year 1836, when Moses Gill and
his brother-in-law, Henry Lewis Lawrence, were the landlords,--and sold
out about 1842 to Thomas Treadwell Farnsworth. It was then conducted as
a temperance house, at that time considered a great innovation on former
customs. After a short period it was sold to Daniel Hunt, who kept it
until 1852, and he was followed by James M. Colburn, who had it for two
years. It then came into the possession of J. Nelson Hoar, a son of the
former landlord, who took it in 1854, and in whose family it has since
remained. Latterly it has been managed by three of his daughters, and
now is known as the Central House. It is the only tavern in the village,
and for neatness and comfort can not easily be surpassed.
In the list of innholders, near the end of Isaiah Thomas's Almanack, for
1785, appears the name of Richardson, whose tavern stood on the present
site of the Baptist church. It was originally the house owned and
occupied by the Reverend Gershom Hobart, which had been considerably
enlarged by additions on the north and east sides, in order to make it
more suitable for its new purposes. Mine host was Captain Jephthah
Richardson, who died on October 9, 1806. His father was Converse
Richardson, who had previously kept a small inn, on the present Elm
Street, near the corner of Pleasant. It was in this Elm Street house
that Timothy Bigelow, the rising young lawyer, lived, when he first came
to Groton. Within a few years this building has been moved away. Soon
after the death of Captain Jephthah Richardson, the tavern was sold to
Timothy Spaulding, who carried on the business until his death, which
occurred on February 19, 1808. Spaulding's widow subsequently married
John Spalter, who was the landlord for a short time. About 1812 the
house was rented to Dearborn Emerson, who had been possession of it for
a few years.
During the War of 1812 it was an inn of local renown; and a Lieutenant
Chase had his headquarters here for a while, when recruiting for the
army. He raised a company in the neighborhood, which was ordered to
Sackett's Harbor, near the foot of Lake Ontario. The men were put into
uniforms as they enlisted, and drilled daily. They were in the habit of
marching through the village streets to the music of the spirit-stirring
drum and the ear-piercing fife; and occasionally they were invited into
the yard of some hospitable citizen, who would treat them to "the cups
that cheer but not inebriate," when taken in moderation. William Kemp
was the drummer, and Wilder Shepley the fifer, both noted musicians in
their day. Sometimes his brother, Moses Kemp, would act as fifer.
William is still alive, at the advanced age of nearly ninety-five years,
and gives many reminiscences of that period. He was born at Groton on
May 8, 1789, and began to drum in early boyhood. His first appearance in
the public service was during the year 1805, as drummer of the South
Company of Groton, commanded by Luther Lawrence, afterward the mayor of
Lowell. He has been the father of nine children, and has had thirty
grandchildren, thirty-three great-grandchildren, and one
great-great-grandchild. Mr. Kemp can even now handle the drumsticks with
a dexterity rarely equaled; and within a short time I have seen him give
an exhibition of his skill which would reflect credit on a much younger
person. Among the men enlisted here during that campaign were Marquis D.
Farnsworth, Aaron Lewis, William Shepley, and John Woodward, of this
town; and James Adams, and his son, James, Jr., of Pepperell.
It was about the year 1815 that and Dearborn Emerson left the Richardson
tavern, and moved down the street, perhaps thirty rods, where he opened
another public house on the present site of Milo H. Shattuck's store.
The old tavern, in the meantime, passed into the hands of Daniel
Shattuck, who kept it until his death, which occurred on April 8, 1831.
The business was then carried on during a short time by Clark Tenny, who
was followed by Lemuel Lakin, and afterward by Francis Shattuck, a son
of Daniel, for another brief period. About the year 1833 it was given up
entirely as a public house, and thus passed away an old landmark widely
known in those times. It stood well out on the present road, the front
door facing down what is now Main Street, the upper end of which then
had no existence. In approaching the tavern from the south, the road
went up Hollis Street and turned to the left somewhere south of the
Burying-Ground. The house afterward was cut up and moved off, just
before the Baptist meeting-house was built. My earliest recollections
carry me back faintly to the time when it was last used as a tavern,
though I remember distinctly the building as it looked before it was
taken away.
Dearborn Emerson married a sister of Daniel Brooks, a large owner in the
line of stage-coaches running through Groton from Boston to the
northward; and this family connection was of great service to him. Jonas
Parker, commonly known as "Tecumseh" Parker, was now associated with
Emerson in keeping the new hotel. The stage business was taken away from
the Richardson tavern, and transferred to this one. The house was
enlarged, spacious barns and stables were erected, and better
accommodations given to man and beast,--on too large a scale for profit,
it seems, as Parker and Emerson failed shortly afterward, This was in
the spring of 1818, during which year the tavern was purchased by Joseph
Hoar, who kept it a little more than six years, when he sold it to Amos
Alexander. This landlord, after a long time, was succeeded in turn by
Isaac J. Fox, Horace Brown, William Childs, Artemas Brown, John
McGilson, Abijah Wright, and Moses Gill. It was given up as a hotel in
1856, and made into a shoe factory; and finally it was burned. Mr. Gill
had the house for eight years, and was the last landlord. He then opened
a public house directly opposite to the Orthodox church, and called it
The Globe, which he kept for two years. He was succeeded by Stephen
Woods, who remained only one year, after which time this also was given
up as a public house.
Another hostelry was the Ridge Hill tavern, situated at the Ridges,
three miles from the village, on the Great Road to Boston. This was
built about the year 1805, and much frequented by travelers and
teamsters. At this point the roads diverge and come together again in
Lexington, making two routes to Boston. It was claimed by interested
persons that one was considerably shorter than the other,--though the
actual difference was less than a mile. In the year 1824 a guide-board
was set up at the crotch of the roads, proclaiming the fact that the
distance to Lexington through Concord was two miles longer than through
Carlisle. Straightway the storekeepers and innholders along the Concord
road published a counter-statement, that it had been measured by sworn
surveyors, and the distance found to be only two hundred and thirty-six
rods further than by the other way.
The first landlord of the Ridge Hill tavern was Levi Parker, noted for
his hospitality. He was afterward deputy-sheriff of Middlesex County,
and lived in Westford. He was followed, for a short time, by John
Stevens, and then by John H. Loring, who conducted the house during many
years, and was succeeded by his son Jefferson. After him came Henry L.
Lawrence, who kept it during one year; he was followed by his
brother-in-law, Moses Gill, who took the tavern in April, 1837, and kept
it just five years. When Mr. Gill gave up the house, he was followed by
one Langdon for a short time, and he in turn by Kimball Farr as the
landlord, who had bought it the year previously, and who remained in
charge until 1868. During a part of the time when the place was managed
by Mr. Farr; his son Augustus was associated with him. Mr. Farr sold the
tavern to John Fuzzard, who kept it for a while, and is still the owner
of the property. He was followed by Newell M. Jewett; the present
landlord is Stephen Perkins, a native of York, Maine, who took it in
1880. The house had been vacant for some years before this time. A fair
is held here regularly on the first Tuesday of every month, for the sale
of horses, and buyers are attracted from a long distance. At one time
this property was owned by Judge Samuel Dana, who sold it to John H.
Loring.
As early as the year 1798 there was a tavern about a mile from the
Ridges, toward Groton. It was kept by Stephen Farrar, in the house now
standing near where the brook crosses the Great Road. Afterward one
Green was the landlord. The house known as the Levi Tufts place in this
neighborhood was an inn during the early part of this century, conducted
by Tilly Buttrick. Also about this time, or previously, the house
situated south of Indian Hill, and occupied by Charles Prescott,--when
the map in Mr. Butler's History was made,--was an inn. There was a
tavern kept from the year 1812 to 1818 by a Mr. Page, in Mr. Gerrish's
house, near the Unitarian church in the village. There was also a
tavern, near the present paper-mills of Tileston and Hollingsworth, kept
for many years (1825-55) by Aaron Lewis, and after him for a short time
by one Veazie. It was originally the house of John Capell, who owned the
sawmill and gristmill in the immediate neighborhood. Amos Adams had an
inn near Squannacook, a hundred years ago, in a house now owned by James
Kemp.
Just before and during the Revolution a tavern was kept by George
Peirce, in the south part of the town, within the present limits of
Ayer. This landlord was probably the inn-holder of Littleton, whose name
appears in The Massachusetts Gazette, of August 8, 1765. The house was
the one formerly owned by the late Calvin Fletcher, and burned March 25,
1880. It was advertised for sale, as appears from the following
advertisement in The Boston Gazette, September 27, 1773:--
To be Sold at PUBLIC VENDUE, to the highest Bidder, on
Wednesday the 3d Day of November next, at four o'Clock in the
Afternoon (if not Sold before at Private Sale) by me the
Subscriber, A valuable FARM in Groton, in the County of
Middlesex, pleasantly situated on the great County Road,
leading from Crown Point and No. 4 to Boston: Said Farm
contains 172 Acres of Upland and Meadow, with the bigger Part
under improvement, with a large Dwelling House and Barn, and
Out Houses, together with a good Grist Mill and Saw Mill, the
latter new last Year, both in good Repair, and on a good
Stream, and within a few Rods of the House. Said Farm would
make two good Livings, and would sell it in two Divisions, or
together, as it would best suit the Purchaser. Said House is
situated very conveniently for a Tavern, and has been improved
as such for Ten Years past, with a Number of other
Conveniences, too many to enumerate. And the Purchaser may
depend upon having a good warrantee Deed of the same, and the
bigger Part of the Pay made very easy, on good Security. The
whole of the Farming Tools, and Part of the Stock, will be sold
as above-mentioned, at the Subscriber's House on said Farm.
GEORGE PEIRCE.
Groton, Aug. 30, 1773.
The gristmill and sawmill, mentioned in the advertisement, were on
Nonacoicus Brook. In the Gazette, of November 15, 1773, another notice
appears, which shows that the tavern was not sold at the time originally
appointed. It is as follows:--
The Publick are hereby Notified that the Sale of the FARM in
Groton, which was to have been sold the 3d Instant on the
Premisses, at the House of Mr. George Peirce, is adjourn'd to
the house of Mr. Joseph Moulton, Innholder in Boston, where it
will certainly be Sold to the highest Bidder, on Wednesday the
1st Day of December next, at 4 o'Clock, P.M.