Very Ancient History

Roxbury Puddingstone is the bedrock of Jamaica Plain. Anywhere you see a rock outcrop, you can expect it to be of the famous conglomerate. Churches, walls and foundations have been made of it throughout the community, with much of it probably coming from either the site or very nearby. In looking for an online source of information on our state rock, I came upon this entry from an old book. For anyone with questions about Roxbury Puddingstone, I think that's the best you'll get without going to a good library.

Just to clarify: Roxbury Puddingstone may be glacial in origin, but it is not the product of the (relatively) recent ice ages that shaped the surface of modern Massachusetts. This is some very old rock - recent sources date it to 500 million years - that's Precambrian for you geologists and paleontologists.

Welcome To The Slaughterhouse

This segment of an 1858 map shows a slaughter house at the end of a lane between Centre street and Chestnut avenue. Look just to the right of center on the map.



It's really not as ominous as it sounds. Jamaica Plain was a farming community, and it did have at least one slaughterhouse over the years. The second short entry notes a fire at the slaughterhouse of Mr Goldsmith, and his name show up at the top of the above-mentioned lane on the map. The first article is dated 35 years before this map was published. The reference to the estate of Dr. Warren suggests that the site is the same, as Dr Warren lived near where Green street was later laid out.

Addendum: I just noticed that a Goldsmith place is now located right about where the lane to the slaughterhouse is shown on this map. I'm not familiar with Goldsmith place, and wouldn't have remembered the name unless I looked at a current map. It looks like the slaughterhouse would have been between the end of Goldsmith place and Enfield street. I hope there are no vegans living there now - they'd probably be haunted by nightmares and never know why.

Do you suppose there are any cow bones in the ground where the old slaughterhouse was located? I'd bet some digging in the right place would find some, if they weren't all found when the streets were laid out and houses built.


Columbian Centinel November 5, 1823


On Monday, Nov. 24, at 3 o'clock, P.M. two lots of Land, on Jamaica Plain, opposite the seat of John Hubbard, Esq. and adjoining the estate of the late Doct. Warren, being a donation given in care to the trustees of Eliot School, by the late Mrs. Abigail Brewer. One lot of about fifteen acres is bounded on the Main Road, about eighteen rods, being licensed for, and having a Slaughter house thereon. An opportunity now offers to young men who wish to establish themselves in that business, that does not often occur. This lot of Land is superior in quality, having two living springs that have never failed, and an interval that bears two crops a year without dressing.

The other lot contains about five acres, adjoining the river upland and meadow. Conditions liberal, made known at time of sale. For particulars inquire of


Committee of Sales

Jos Curtis,
Paul Gore,
Benj. T. Williams,

Roxbury, Nov 3, 1823




New Hampshire Sentinel December 27, 1849


[Excerpt]

On Friday night, shortly after ten o'clock, the slaughterhouse of Mr Goldsmith, Jamaica Plain, was discovered to be on fire, and was mostly consumed. It was the work of an incendiary.

Susan E. Tracy - Occupational Therapy Pioneer

Susan E. Tracy is credited with being the first to train nurses in occupational therapy in a series of lectures at the Adams-Nervine Asylum on Centre street in Jamaica Plain. Her 1906 lectures were followed by a 1910 book, Studies in invalid occupation: A method for nurses and attendants. During World War I, she trained nurses in occupational therapy to work with returning disabled soldiers.


Kansas City Times June 1, 1918


To Teach Crippled Soldiers.

Detroit Women Nurses Will Educate Maimed Fighters.

From the Detroit News.

Preparation for the task of re-educating United States soldiers disabled in the war has begun in Detroit with the organization of a school in invalid occupation to train pupil nurses for work in the government reconstruction hospitals for maimed soldiers.

Miss Susan E. Tracy, director of the experiment station of invalid occupation, at Jamaica Plain, near Boston, has been engaged by the Detroit Community Union to train a class of fifty Detroit nurses for the work of teaching crippled soldiers simple trades by which they may make a living even though confined to their beds or wheel chairs for the remainder of their lives.

"Even though confined to their beds for life, soldiers may be taught to manufacture small articles of furniture, and clothing, from the sale of which they can easily make enough money to support themselves," Miss Tracy says. "After this war the task of re-educating maimed soldiers will be one of the greatest problems with which this country will have to contend. Enough nurses should be trained so that no time will be lost in teaching our crippled boys how to be independent and busy."

The articles which disabled American soldiers will be taught to manufacture, Miss Tracy says, are cane seats for chairs, bed slippers, tea trays, baskets, ladies' purses, pocketbooks, baby shoes, lamp shades, flower and plant stands, match scratchers, bill folders, leather caps, gloves and many other articles of clothing and furniture.


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Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of Miss Tracy. If I read the Boston Directory of 1925 correctly, she lived on the grounds of the Adams-Nervine Asylum where she worked.

Jamaica Plain Station

Photo courtesy of Ebay


This post card comes from the Divided Back period (1907-1914) of postcard history, and this particular one was postmarked Feb. 20, 1908. We're looking south on the inbound side. You can see the layout of the stations and adjacent buildings here (upper right corner). At the far left, you see the mansard roof of a building owned by the Old Colony Railroad Co. To the far right, the houses you see are on either Everett or Call street.

Band Concert - 1877

Cadet bands were very popular during the post-Civil War years. They grew out of military bands, but became concert groups, performing light classical and popular music. The top band leaders and soloists were stars of their day, Perhaps this concert was an effort by the City of Boston to show the benefits of annexation. Then again, maybe it was just a concert.



Boston Daily Globe August 1, 1877


City Concert at Jamaica Plain.

The Boston Cadet Band will perform the following programme of music at the junction of Centre and South streets this evening:

1. March --- "Royal Trumpeter." ......................Voight
2. Fantasie --- "Musical Soiree." .......................Bosquet
3. Baritone Solo --- "Souvenir de Donizetti." .... Claus

Performed by J.U. Odell.

4. Waltzer--- "Spring Flowers." .................Bosquet
5. Selection --- "Girotle Girotla." .........,,,,. Mullaly
6. Cornet Solo --- "Cleopatra." .................. Demare

Performed by Walter Emerson.

7. Bridal March from "Lohengrin." ............... Wagner
8. Fantasie for Piccolo..................................De Carlo

Performed by August Damm.

9. Songs by Mendelsshon, arranged by J.B. Claus

10. Potpourri --- "Harvard." .................... Mullaly
11. Galop --- "Pleasure Party." ................. Strauss

History Repeats Itself

I've come up with two double drownings in Jamaica Pond. In this case, the victims are horses as well as men. Across the colonial and antebellum eras, history did repeat itself, first as tragedy, and then as Darwin Award entry.




New England Weekly Journal August 14, 1727


On Wedneſday last one Robert Sweedland, driving a Cart from this Place to Mr. Stone's Farm at Roxbury, drove down to Jamaica Pond, ſo called, in order to give Drink to the Horſes, and the Horſes being eager for the Water, ran ſwiftly into the ſaid Pond, and there were Drowned, and the poor Man willing to do his utmoſt to ſave the Horſes, was himself likewiſe Drowned.



Essex Gazette July 19, 1839


Sunday morning, a young man named Henry Whalley, was swimming a horse in Jamaica Pond, Roxbury, in presence of nearly twenty persons. The horse was kept in the water a long time, and urged far out from the shore. Becoming exhausted he rolled partly over, and threw off the young man, who not being able so swim, seized the horse so violently about the neck, that it was difficult for the beast to keep his head above water. Finally he gave a plunge and threw the man off, who sunk; after swimming around a few seconds, the horse also sank, and both man and beast were drowned. The bodies of both were recovered in about twenty minutes, but life was extinct. --- Boston Gazette.

David S. Greenough Makes A Purchase

David Stoddard Greenough was the father of David Stoddard Greenough, and ancestor of three additional David Stoddard Greenoughs in a row. D.S. Greenough the First came into possession of the house of Loyalist Commodore Joshua Loring after the Revolutionary War, the house surviving today as the Loring-Greenough house at the Soldier's Monument in Jamaica Plain.

The Massachusetts Historical Society has been nice enough to make available transcripts of papers found in the David Stoddard Greenough papers (direct links below). The first is a bill of sale, dated July 13, 1785, from John Mory to D.S. Greenough.The property being exchanged, for the sum of five pounds, is a mulatto boy, five years of age, named Dick. The boy, son of Mory's negro servant Binah, is assigned as a servant until his twenty-first birthday.

The next year, an agreement of indenture was filed,in which five Selectmen of the Town of Roxbury, acting... in loco parentis?... signed over the labor of Dick Mory, negro child, to David Stoddard Greenough, for the next fifteen years in exchange for room, board and training as a farmer.

Please read the two documents, here and here.

So what goes on here? The documents can be interpreted in more than one way. Slavery in Massachusetts had been effectively outlawed by a court decision in 1783, but it took several years for the decision to be followed in practice. In this case D.S. Greenough buys a five year old boy two years after the legal ruling on slavery, and the contract explicitly states that the boy's service is only assigned until he turns twenty-one. The indenture document also stipulates service until the twenty-first birthday, so it seems as if indenture, rather than life-long slavery was indented from the start.

Should we think of this as simply a way to get around the slavery ruling of 1783, and get a slave in fact, if not in name? That's what I thought at first. Then again, why a five year old boy? At that age, he's useless as a servant/worker, and you have to feed and cloth him until he's old enough to be of use around the house and farm. Given that indenture was still legal, why not just get yourself an able-bodied young man and put him to work immediately?

Buying a slave, or binding an indentured servant at the age of five makes no sense to me. What could lead to D.S. Greenough the First to taking on the expense of caring for a five year old boy? Could the agreement to take on the boy actually be considered in a positive light? I could imagine a story in which Mr Greenough takes on the boy to provide him a job and a home while he grows to adulthood. It's hard to justify the need for legal contracts under that scenario, but I still wouldn't rule it out.

Then there's another explanation. Binah, the mother of the boy Dick, is described in the first document as a negro. The boy is called a mulatto. The difference may not matter, but it does raise the question: who was the father? Hmmm.... Are you thinking what I'm thinking? It turns out that the Greenoughs only married in 1784, so an interesting possibility seems highly unlikely.

In the end, the mystery, such as it is, remains a mystery. David S. Greenough purchased a young boy to work as a servant until he reached his majority - that much we know. Why he did so remains a puzzle to me. The simple answer certainly my be the correct one. On the other hand, the loose ends implied by the language in the documents may complicate the story in ways that we cannot decipher. In school I was taught that indenture usually lasted for seven years, and that it was an agreement among adults. In this case, we have a child indentured until adulthhood by the town fathers. The details make the story a bit messy, but that's history.


Addendum: For a great look at slavery in Massachusetts and the other northern states, check out Slavery in the North. Definitely required reading.

Bussey Institute - Part II

It took a while, but I'm finally getting back to this second and final entry on the Bussey Institute. The first entry - here - included an article written in 1899 extolling the virtues of the agricultural and horticultural program at the Institute. Just nine years later, the undergraduate program described in the Globe article was shut down, and the Institute was reorganized as a graduate school that would focus on scientific research.

The new research institute featured two men who would become leaders in the effort to understand the mechanisms of inheritance. William Castle worked with mammals and Edward Murray East with plants at a time when the nature of inheritance was still very much a mystery. The work of Austrian monk Gregor Mendel in the mid-1800s had done much to unlock the mystery, but it was not recognized at the time. It wasn't until the turn of the century that multiple researchers came upon the same results Mendel did, and proper genetic research could begin. Thus, the new Bussey graduate program was begun just as a new science took hold, with faculty and students capable of playing a major role in new discoveries. Among the students who came to the Bussey Institute in its early days (1912-1915) was Sewall Wright, who became, with Englishmen R.A. Fisher and J.B.S. Haldane, one of the founding fathers of population genetics as it applies to evolutionary biology. A later student, and one better known to the general public - though not for his Bussey work - was Alfred Kinsey (1916-1919), who made an exacting study of gall wasps for his Ph.D.

The actual work done by the Bussey faculty and students is beyond the scope of this site, and would no doubt sit unread if I bothered typing it up. Suffice it to say that the Bussey evolved from a quaint agricultural school to a modern research institute in the early 1900s. As such, it would probably have disappeared from sight for the residents of Jamaica Plain. News of work done at the Institute would be carried by scientific journals and institutional publications, not newspapers, and they would only be read by other scientists in the same field.

By 1936, the program was closed, and the staff transferred to Cambridge. During the 20th century, the state purchased Bussey land for vaccine production and diagnostic testing laboratories, and in 1963 the entire grounds were purchased from Harvard, ending their connection to the land. A new hulking monstrosity was built in 1969, and the main building of the Institute was torn down in the early 1970s. Today, the Institute is probably remembered in more detail by students of the history of science than it is by Jamaica Plain residents.

Sources: Records of the Bussey Institution, Kinsey biography, Sewell Wright and Evolutionary Biology, by William B. Provine.

Kids And Guns

Here are two stories from early in the last century, both involving children and guns. The first has an element of humor, while the second is pure tragedy.



Boston Daily Globe March 19, 1913


Asks To Be Kept In Cell.

Jamaica Plain Boy, Held in Shooting Case, Escapes From Juvenile Home but Police Send Him Back.


Preferring a cell in the Jamaica Plain police station to the comparative liberty of a juvenile home in Wellesley, Charles A. Burrows, 14 years old, of 37 School st, Jamaica Plain, who was held in $3000 bonds on a charge of assault with a loaded revolver on Carl G.A. Danielson of 41 School st, Jamaica Plain, made his escape from the institution yesterday afternoon.

The boy was arrested Saturday evening and spent Sunday in the Jamaica Plain Police Station, where he became friendly with the patrolmen. He was given in charge of the State Board of Charity Monday and was sent to the Wellesley institution.

After dinner yesterday he was allowed with the other children to play on the grounds of the home, and eluding an attendant he walked in upon his astonished parents just as they had finished the evening meal. He said he had no intention of escaping the authorities, but told them he did not like Wellesley and was perfectly willing to return to a cell in the Jamaica Plain Station.

Accompanied by his mother, he walked to the station house, where he greeted the patrolmen like old friends and went to a cell with a smile of satisfaction.

Hardly had he reached the cell when a telephone message from Headquarters was received ordering that the boy be sent at once to meet a representative of the Wellesley institution. He was accordingly taken back.

While Burrows and the other boys were playing "Wild West" at Franklin Park, Danielson was shot in the abdomen and is now lying at the City Hospital in serious condition. Burrows admitted he shot the lad with a 22-caliber revolver which he had bought that morning, but insisted it was accidental.



June 24, 1916


Absolve Hickox Of Myers' Death

Acquitted of Charge of Manslaughter

Accidentally Fired Revolver in Jamaica Plain Store

Officer Pulsifer, Its Owner, Breaks Down in Court



George HIckox, who fired the shot from a policeman's revolver which killed 14-year-old Kenneth T. Myers in a store at 95 Boylston st, Jamaica Plain, on the evening of June 16, was freed of the charge of manslaughter by Judge Perrins in the West Roxbury court yesterday.

Patrolman Pulsifer of the Jamaica Plain station, who owned the weapon, broke down and wept during his testimony. Especially was he affected when the revolver was handed to him for a demonstration of how he handed it to Hickox before the accidental shooting.

Pulsifer had been telling of the incidents leading to the accident when his gaze rested on his revolver. Then he put out his hand and, taking the weapon, lowered his head, unable to continue his testimony for two minutes.

Patrolman Pulsifer told of going into the store where Hickox was clerk, and the conversation in which he was asked his opinion about a new revolver the clerk had in the rear of the store. Hickox expressed surprise when told that it was worth about $1.50, and to explain the small value Pulsifer brought out his own revolver to show the greater grip.

A few seconds after Hickox received the officer's weapon there was an explosion from the revolver. Pulsifer testified that Hickox was startled by the shot and asked him (Pulsifer) if he was hit, and receiving a negative reply, asked young Myers the same question.

The lad also said no and started for the door of the store, but grew faint. The officer caught him before he fell, carried him to a table in the rear of the store and gave him a drink of water. The boy asked what the matter was and Pulsifer said he told him he had been frightened and fainted. He said Hickox was much upset and exclaimed "Why did I take that into my hand?"

Capt. Joseph Harriman of Station 13 told of first hearing of the shooting when informed by Medical Examiner McGrath, on the morning of June 17, of the bullet hole in the boy's body. Then Pulsifer and Hickox were sent for, and the officer's story was substantially that of his testimony on the stand.

Charl Schleich, aged 10, of 1 Jess st, who was in the store at the time of the shooting and was sent after a doctor, also testified, corroborating the facts as told by the principal witnesses.

Then Hickox went to the stand, and his story agreed with that of Pulsifer, that the shot was purely accidental.

Hickox was represented by Sewell C. Brackett, who argued that as his client had never fired a shot before in his life and was unfamiliar with firearms, his finger naturally went to the trigger, and in turning it over the shot was accidentally fired. Capt Harriman, who, with Inspector Greavey of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, conducted the prosecution, made no arguments.

Judge Perrins, in summing up, said that the case was one of the "didn't know it was loaded" variety, and that the whole affair was simply a regrettable incident. As far as had been shown, he stated, there was absolutely no malice or evil intent in the affair and he ordered HIckox freed.

Tonsorial Cartel Strikes Jamaica Plain

How is it that it took 45 years to go from 35 to 50 cents for a boys' haircut, but a loaf of bread goes up 25 cents in a week today? This is why I cut my own hair.




Boston Daily Globe April 27, 1920


Barbers Raise Prices In Roxbury, Jamaica Plain


Beginning Saturday, haircuts in Roxbury, Jamaica Plain and Forest Hills are to be 50 cents, shaves 30 cents and children's haircuts 35 cents. More than 1(?) master barbers of those sections, meeting in Columbus Hall, Centre st and Columbus av, last night, voted unanimously in favor of the increase.

A permanent organization, to be known as the Roxbury, Jamaica Plain and Forest Hills Master Barbers' Association, was planned. Dominick Scordino of Jamaica Plain was elected temporary chairman; Joseph Rando of Roxbury, clerk and Thomas Sullivan of Jamaica Plain, treasurer.

John C. Gore And The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society

I've posted a few enlightening but depressing slavery entries recently, so it's good to be able to add a positive entry to the mix. Here we meet John C. Gore, of the Roxbury Gores, one of whom was later memorialized by Paul Gore street in Jamaica Plain. This Gore was evidently an abolitionist, and a religious man as well. His effort to contribute to church and cause together came to nought, and so he chose the cause as the greater good.




Deed of John C. Gore.


At a special meeting of the Board of Managers of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, held in Boston at the Society's Room, Dec. 29, 1841 --- Ellis Gray Loring stated that John C. Gore, Esquire, of Jamaica Plain, had presented to the society a piece of land, valued at about six hundred dollars, by a deed in the following words: ---

Whereas, John C. Gore, of Roxbury, in the county of Norfolk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, having learned that certain individuals residing in or near that part of said Roxbury, called Jamaica Plain, were desirous of forming a Baptist Church, and erecting a house of public worship in that place; and having also ascertained that the piece of ground hereinafter described, would be deemed a suitable location therefor, did, in a letter dated on the fifteenth day of May last, offer to make to the said new Baptist Society a free gift of the said piece of ground for the erection of a meeting-house thereon:--- adding to his letter the following request or reservation:

"The only favor I ask in return is, that they (the new Society) will permit this building to be used twelve times in a year of a week day, and not of a Sunday, (for five years from the date of the opening of the house for religious services,) by the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, who will appoint a responsible person, not personally disagreeable to the Baptist Society, to lecture therein, in order that the cruelties and villainies practiced towards twenty-seven hundred thousand human beings, by a nation who call themselves Christians, and profess to be the most free and enlightened on the earth, may be exposed: after the expiration of which five years, the whole property will remain vested in the Baptist Society, without condition, hindrance, or agreement of any kind."

And whereas the said Gore subsequently received from the Clerk of said new Society a reply to his offer, in the following words:


"Mr J.C. Gore: Sir,-- At a meeting of individuals interested in forming a Baptist Church at this part of the town, your communication, offering a lot of land as the site of the contemplated meeting-house, was read, and referred to a committee specially appointed to consider the same. The committee met for this purpose on Monday evening last, and, after due deliberation,

"Voted, That, although they regard with kindness Mr. Gore's offer, yet under all circumstances in the case, it is inexpedient to accept the same, with the reservations and conditions named by him."


Now, therefore, I, John C. Gore, above named, although painfully and reluctantly convinced not by this only, but by numberless similar instances, that the American Church, professedly dedicated to One who came to proclaim deliverance to the captive, and liberty to them that are bruised, is, as a body criminally indifferent to the wrongs and sufferings of the Slave, and in virtual alliance with Slavery, am yet desirous of making my proffered and rejected gift in some suitable way available to the cause of the true religion, which includes justice and mercy towards our fellow-man.

And for this purpose, I do hereby, in consideration of the premises, grant and convey unto Francis Jackson, Henry G. Chapman and Ellis Gray Loring, of the city of Boston, Esquires, and members of the Board of Managers of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, a parcel of land in Burroughs-Street, in Jamaica Plain, in said Roxbury, containing three quarters of an acre, more or less, and bounded as follows: Starting from the land of Nathaniel Seaver, on Burroughs-Street, and running on Burroughs-Street, north 37 degrees west, 134 feet; thence turning and running on land of John E. Williams, south 59 1-4 degrees west, 229 feet, 6 inches; thence turning and running on land of John Ashton, south 34 1-4 degrees east, 134 feet 4 inches; thence turning and running north 53 degrees east 234 feet 9 inches, on land of Nathaniel Seaver to Burroughs street, at the point of starting.

With all the privileges and appurtenances thereof: being the same conveyed to me by the deed of Cyrus Josselyn, dated April 3d, 1840, and recorded with Norfolk Deeds Lib. 128, Fol. 60.

To have and to hold the above granted premises to the said Jackson, Chapman and Loring, the survivors and survivor of them and his heirs and assigns to his and their use, but in trust, nevertheless, to make the said property, or its proceeds, instrumental at their discretion, and in any way they may think proper, in promoting the cause of the immediate and unconditional abolition of American Slavery.

In testimony whereof, I, the said John C. Gore, and also Mary Gore, my wife, who executes these presents in token of her releasing all right to dower in the premises, and of her hearty concurrence in this may act, have hereunto set our hands and seals this eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty.

John C. Gore
Mary Gore


Source: Annual Report and Proceedings: by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society

John Hancock Slept Here

John Hancock, Library of Congress image.



As told in this JP Historical Society article, John Hancock lived, for a time, on Centre street in Jamaica Plain. The house referred to in the article sat approximately where Aldworth street now meets Centre street, a short way from the Soldier's Monument. The advertisement below, however, suggests that a Mrs Noble possessed the house between the Hancock family and Nathaniel Curtis, a later owner. Mr Gray's Meeting-House refers to the church at the corner of Centre and Eliot streets - at that time the only church in Jamaica Plain. Many of the real estate advertisements of the time used the same reference to locate Jamaica Plain properties for potential buyers.



Boston Daily Advertiser July 13, 1822

Elegant Country Seat.

To be sold, the House, Out Buildings and Land, containing six acres, formerly occupied by the late Mrs Noble, situate(sic) on Jamaica Plains, near the Rev. Mr. Gray's Meeting-House. The house was built in the most thorough manner, by John Hancock, Esq. and possesses every convenience. The stable is also large and commodious. The buildings are all in excellent order; - and there are a great variety of most excellent fruit trees on the premises. It is presented that no situation in the vicinity of Boston can be more desirable for a gentleman's country residence. Inquire at this office.

Sophia G. Hayden, Architect.

Woman's Building of the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893


I do believe I've unearthed a Jamaica Plain woman of note who is as yet unrecognized. Miss Sophia G. Hayden entered a contest to design the Woman's Building at the great Columbian Exposition of 1893, and damned if she didn't win! Miss Hayden was a Boston girl, and living on Forest Hills street in Jamaica Plain at the time of the competition. I can't trace her to any other address in Boston, and she disappears from any online record with this accomplishment, but given the nature of her success - and her job at the Eliot School - I think that it is reasonable to include her in the JP Hall of Remembrance.

To read about the Woman's Building and its exhibits, go here and here.



The Daily Inter Ocean March 27, 1891


Two Boston Girls.

They Take First and Second Prize for Designs for the Woman's Fair Building.

Boston, Mass., March 26. --- Special Telegram.


Much interest was aroused in Boston this morning when the announcement was made that two Boston girls had won the first and second prizes for architectural designs for the woman's building at the World's Fair. Both are young, both are industrious, and both are Technology girls. Miss Sophia G. Hayden, who took the first prize, is a girl in her early twenties, who came from the Roxbury High School to the Institute of Technology and took the complete four years's course, graduating with the class of 1800. Her home is Forest Hills street, Jamaica Plain, and she is teacher of mechanical drawing in the Eliot School. She is a quite reserved young woman, gifted with tremendous perseverance and fondness for her work. She made her designs at home, working in her own room in hours before and after her work of teaching drawing. When the telegram announcing her success came this morning, she was almost as much surprised as if she had not been in the competition, so little had the hope of the first prize been in her thoughts. She had certainly hoped to do fairly will, but the thousand dollar prize --- well, almost any girl would find her breath taken away by that. Miss Hayden, and also Miss Howe, (who took a two years special course at the institute) are among the few women who have studied architecture. Miss Rockfellow, a graduate of the class of 1888 is the only one before Miss Hayden to take the complete course in this department. French and German, mathematics and physics are required besides the solid work in architectural history, construction, heating, and sanitary science required for the work. Miss Louise Howe, who took the second prize, is a well-liked Cambridge girl. Her home is on Appleton street. She is a draughtswoman, now in the office of Allen & Kenway. Her work on her design was done at the institute. Before going for her two years special study in architecture she had been for four years at the museum of fine arts.




June 28, 1893


Modest Miss Hayden.

Honored by Her Sisters at the World's Fair.


Chicago, June 27 -- The reception tendered today by the board of lady managers to Miss Sophia G. Hayden of Boston, the architect of the woman's building at the World's fair, brought out a large number of friends of that talented and modest little woman.

Miss Hayden did not enter the assembly room until a large number of lady managers had been shown their seats, and when she did come she was escorted, evidently much against her will, to a seat of honor on the stage.

In all 200 women were present, a very large proportion of them being members of the board of lady managers. Miss Hayden was a young graduate of the school of technology in Boston, and this was her maiden effort.

Miss Hayden was introduced and gave a short address.

And Another

Eleazer Weld was the last of his family to live in Weld Hall, on the grounds of the present Arnold Arboretum. He also seems to have lost something. There is no record of whether his property was returned to him.



Boston Evening Post February 6, 1769


Ran-away from the Subscriber,

of Roxbury, on Monday Morning the 30th of January last, a Negro Man Servant named Prince, about 18 Years of Age, and Five Feet High, well built, except small Legs; with one of his upper Fore Teeth broke nigh half way to his Gum, and a large Sear on his Belly occasioned by a Scald; talks good English: -- He carried off with him a blue Broadcloth Coat and Waistcoat, with plain yellow Metal Buttons, a double breasted striped Flannel Jacket, and a plain brown ditto, two Pair Leather Breeches, one Pair of white Yarn Stockings, one Pair of blue ditto, two Pair of Shoes, one of said Pair with Shoestrings, two striped Woolen Shirts, and a Felt Hat.

Whosoever shall take up said servant and bring his to me the Subscriber at Roxbury, or confine him, and notify the same, so that his master can have him, shall have FOUR DOLLARS Reward, and all necessary Charges paid, by me,

Eleazer Weld.

Roxbury, Feb 1st, 1769.

N.B. All Masters of Vessels, and Others, are hereby cautioned against harbouring, concealing, or carrying off said servent.

Speaks For Itself

Jamaica Plain, Roxbury Sept. 25, 1777

Continental Journal

Ten Dollars Reward.

Ran away from the Subscriber, a Negro Woman called Sarah, she is a short, thick wench about 30 years old, she is supposed to be harboured by some free negro in Boston , any person that will take her up and send her to Goal, or to the Subscriber shall have the above reward and all necessary charges.

Timothy Penny.

T.B. Kinraide And The Keely Motor

The home of T.B. Kinraide, Spring Park avenue.



John W. Keely - Inventor/Hoaxer par excellence.




Mr T.B. Kinraide of Jamaica Plain plays a relatively small part in this story, but the story itself was so notorious in its day that I figure he deserves his place in the Jamaica Plain Hall of Remembrance. The notoriety of the story belonged to a Mr John Worrell Keely of Philadelphia. Mr Keely was one of the grand frauds of late 19th century America, managing to keep investors on the hook for over 25 years with promises of new forms of energy, harnessed by his Keely motor. Although scientists and skeptics scoffed at his claims for years, his skill as a showman and the gullibility of the public was sufficient to keep the money coming until his death in 1898. Ironically, as Keely finished out his life of constant fraud, the Curies in France were busy discovering a source of power that would prove to be far more fantastic than anything Keely or any of his contemporaries could have imagined.

For the story of the Mr Keely and his amazing motor, go here and here. Our branch of the story beings with the death of Keely, and the shipping of his mysterious apparatus to Jamaica Plain.



Boston Daily Globe January 2, 1899


To Take Up Keely's Work. Laboratory of the Great Inventor Sent To This City.


The laboratory of the late John W. Keely of Philadelphia, the celebrated inventor, has been stripped of its mechanical devices and the most important of these have been sent to this city. They were forwarded to T. Burton Kinraide's laboratory in Jamaica Plain. Mr Kinraide is a man of wonderful genius and is practical in his ideas of application. He is all the time trying to discover or invent something new, but he does not try the impossible.

He was the friend of Keely, and when the great inventor was near the close of his life he summoned Mr Kinraide to his bedside and begged him to continue the investigations upon which he had devoted his thought, Mr Kinraide agreed to do what he could.

There is a mill full of fantastic machinery such as only the genius of an inventor could devise that had to be left in Philadelphia. Such of the machinery that did arrive in Boston came in an ordinary freight car a few days ago. It is in charge of Charles S. Hill, attorney for the Keely estate.

Mr Kinraide has accepted the machinery and will do is best to perfect the partial discoveries made by Keely. Just exactly what Keely expected to evolve cannot be stated, but he hoped to invent a motor that would run without the use of steam or electricity. He employed a force that is similar to electricity which he claims exists between all molecules of matter. He first discovered that he could disintegrate water by a simple vibration caused by notes of music or a common tuning fork. He found that a mighty force similar to electricity played between the atoms or molecules of all matter, moving them as the planets are moved; that when their motion was disturbed the atoms were broken up, and the power thus released became a new force of almost infinite capacity, according as it was developed, expanded or manipulated.

Keely's first machine, or engine, was called the hydro-pneumatic pulsating vacuo engine. It was constructed after many disappointments, and almost insurmountable difficulties. Explosion after explosion occurred, blowing the engine to fragments, so great was the half-harnessed power. On several occasions Keely was injured - nearly losing his life in the explosions.

And this mysterious power, called the ethereal force playing between molecules of water, was liberated by purely mechanical means.

During his experiments of 15 months he blew up a part of his workshop when the engines went to pieces, and the total expense was $60,000 before he got a machine strong enough to control the force contained in half a pint of water.

Finally, the queer-looking motor - a huge ball of iron like a spherical safe - was running at incredible speed, but it could not be geared by ordinary methods to machinery so that it would pump water, saw wood, or even kill the critics who ridiculed its claims.

With reference to the machinery that has been sent to inventor Kinraide, attorney Hill says:

"The machines are in Boston and none are left in the laboratory in Philadelphia. We have brought on all the engines of interest except the aerial navigator. That is a mammoth machine, weighing seven or eight tons. It never worked, although Mr Keely gave years of study to it. If he could not work it out, we did not think anybody else could.

"There are two vaporic guns, one large and one small. The large one was the one tested at Sandy Hook some years ago before Lieut Zalinski of the U.S. ordinance corps. Considerable excitement was occasioned by one remarkable feature of the test. Nineteen shots were fired, and the (?) showed more power than any that preceded it, which was apparently in defiance of all laws which had been supposed to govern the art of gunnery.

"Probably the two machines will be set up and investigated some time this week. I doubt, however, if anyone will be admitted to see them. One of the conditions on which Mr Kinraide took up the work was that he was to be left entirely free from the necessity of showing the machines to curiosity seekers. If he should succeed in getting a practical machine, there would be a test before the stockholders, and then, in all probability a public one in some hall. Mr Keely worked 23 years and never got a practical machine. By that I mean an engine that he patented and put to commercial use.

"The directors of the Keely motor company understand that state of things fully. It is a matter of experiment with Mr Kinraide. He takes Mr Keely's principle as a new thing, and tries to work it out. He knows more about what Mr Keely thought and did in his laboratory than does any one else in the world. Socially, the two men were the closest friends, and if anybody can perfect the machine upon which Mr Keely labored it is Mr Kinraide.





January 4, 1899

Will Continue Keely's Work. T.B Kinraide of Jamaica Plain Has Most of the Late Inventor's Apparatus at His Home.

Most of the famous Keely machinery or apparatus with which the inventor of the Keely motor hoped to some day startle the world is now in Boston, at the home of Mr T.B. Kinraide, in Jamaica Plain. The machinery has not yet been unpacked, but it will be directly, and then Mr Kinraide will try to accomplish what Mr Keely was trying to accomplish when death snatched him from his workshop.

Hundreds of curious people have called at Mr Kinraids's home since it became known that he would continue the investigations and experiments that occupied the best part of Mr Keely's life.

Everyone wants to know what Mr Kinraide knows. Did Mr Keely leave with him the secret of his motor? Was there a secret to leave? When would the work be accomplished?

To all these questions Mr Kinraide has refused to answer.

"I have not," he said, "nor will I authorize any one to make any statement, in private or for publication that will in any way affect the value of the Keely motor company until I have completed my investigations of said motor."

To a reporter Mr Kinraide said he had known Mr Keely about 10 years. Being interested all his life in acoustics and electricity, Mr Kinraide went one day to Philadelphia to see and become acquainted with Mr Keely. He was attracted to the man, and a friendship sprung up, grew, and warmed to real affection.

Several weeks ago, when Mr Keely was stricken with sickness, Mr Kinraide went to Philadelphia, and while there he promised Mr Keely that in case of a serious termination of his sickness he would take up Mr Keely's work and endeavor to carry it to a successful conclusion.

"I am not in the pay of the directors of the company," said Mr Kinraide. "I am not a director, nor am I in any way connected with the company financially. I am interested in that kind of investigation, and I shall do all in my power to demonstrate within a year the merits of Mr Keely's conception. We should know very soon whether great things may be expected of it or not."

Asked if he had an opinion regarding the merits of the motor, Mr Kinraide said he would have to be excused from speculative discussion. He would apply himself diligently, and if the result warranted a meeting of the stockholders would be called and a public exhibition made.

He would not say whether Mr Keely disclosed the secret of the motor before dying, or whether such a secret were contained in papers left by Mr Keely. He did, however, admit that were there a secret he would be likely to know more about it than anyone else.

Mr Kinraide has been in sympathy with Mr Keely's work for several years, and being an experimenter himself to a considerable extent, he is probably better equipped than anyone else to take up and continue the work of Keely.

Mr Kinraide looks something like Kipling, only darker. He wears glasses and carries on his experiments in a completely equipped workshop on the first floor of his beautiful home on Spring Park av.



January 20, 1899


Not Wonderful. Philadelphia Conclusion Regarding Keely. Committee "Investigated" His Dismantled Shop. Found Evidence of Use of Compressed Air. C.S. Hill, Counsel for Mrs Keely, Not Alarmed. Does Not Think the Report Proves Anything.


Philadelphia, Jan 19 --- The press today publishes an article covering, with illustrations, more than a page, giving the details of an investigation made by that paper of the dismantled workshop of the late John W. Keely, which investigation, the Press contends, clearly proves the mysterious Keely motor to have been a delusion and deception, and that its alleged mysterious forces were the result of trickery.

[a long article continues]



***********************************************************************************


This article, and others like it, gave the details of Keely's fraudulent machines. Hidden magnets, compressed air tubes, powerful springs and other mechanical devices provided the energy for Keely's harnessing of the "ether." Belts and pulleys from above and below his room transferred power to his apparatus, while observers watched with amazement. The description of the fraud go beyond any need of this site to elaborate. Our interest is in Jamaica Plain, and to Jamaica Plain we return.


***********************************************************************************



May 7, 1899

Kinraide Gives It Up. Abandons All Connection With Keely Motor. He Dislikes the Noteriety that It Has Brought Him. All Machinery and Papers Will be Sent Back to Philadelphia.


The Keely motors and all the machinery and manuscripts left by the famous inventor that had been turned over to Mr T. Barton Kinraide of Jamaica Plain, will be sent back to Philadelphia.

Mr Kinraide, since the alleged exposure of duplicity in connection with the methods of Mr Keely, has done no work upon the mechanism in his possession and has abandoned all intention of doing anything further with them.

The alleged exposure was considered by Mr Kinraide to be a breach of confidence on the part of men who made it public, and consequently he decided to abandon all projected investigations. Mr Kinraide did not like the notoriety coming from his connection with the Keely Motors and he has decided to step down and out.



As a postscript:


February 12, 1899


Keely Victim's Wail.


They were vigorously raising the dust in Keely's famous laboratory. Pulling up carpets and loosening the boards, they eagerly sought for evidence of the inventor's rascality.

Finally, a shout arose. A small reservoir and two severed pipes were brought to light.

"Compressed air!" roared the finder.

A moment later another pipe appeared.

"Motor gas!" came a cry.

Still another pipe was disclosed.

"Stored up ether!" shrieked the discoverer.

But an aged Philadelphian stood by, and watched, with a lowering brow, as hole succeeded hole in the honeycombed floor.

And at every new opening he hoarsely muttered, "Not large enough, not large enough."

Presently a newspaper writer approached him.

"Pardon me, venerable sir," he politely said, "but may I ask why it is that every time a new opening is made in the floor you murmur, 'Not large enough'?"

"I say it, young man," replied the aged spectator, "because I am deeply anxious to discover the hole into which all my money went!"

And again that husky cry. "Not large enough, not large enough!" arose on the dusty air. (Cleveland Plain Dealer.)



A final postscript: Our Mr Kinraide was back in the news in 1920, this time in the matter of a personal scandal. His young wife sued for divorce, citing regular drunkenness, abuse, and a catalogue of curious behavior. The story says nothing about Jamaica Plain, so it makes little sense to copy it out in this forum, but it certainly reads like grand spectacle. As a taste, Mr Kinraide claimed that he had only married his wife - then sixteen years old - because he felt responsible for having earlier burned her with x-rays during one of his experiments! The unfortunate Mrs Kinraide got the kids and support, and Mr Kinraide disappears from the public eye.

The Birth Of A Street

Walling, H.F. 1858. BPL



Prince street was one of the first to be added to the original Colonial Roxbury roads. Pond and Perkins streets, which it stretched between, are listed as being accepted in 1825, but both may have existed earlier. Prince street was cut through the property of Capt. John Prince on the edge of Jamaica Pond, and as such was one of the first properties in the section to be turned into a street lot with residences, a pattern that would be followed many times in the coming years. Jamaica Pond was already the home to gentlemen's estates, and the new street would allow the development of more.

The map segment above shows Prince street along the left side of the pond, 30 years after the petition shown below. The small squares are meant to show houses, but I wouldn't rely on their accuracy. Streets that most certainly should have houses on them show none.




Village Register and Norfolk County Advertiser June 12, 1828

To the County Commissioners for the County of Norfolk.

Respectfully represents, the Petition of the Subscribers, inhabitants of Jamaica Plain in Roxbury and its vicinity, and resident to the South of Jamaica Pond; that a new road or avenue leading from Jamaica Plain aforesaid to Brookline, is much wanted for the convenience of the inhabitants of that vicinity, and that an opportunity now presents, whereby the same may be obtained, at comparatively small expense -- inasmuch as John Prince Esq. through whose land the same will chiefly pass, is desirous to dispose of his estate, and will, we believe, willingly give the land, over which the same will pass, provided said contemplated road should be laid out in a direction, which he should designate, and of a width not exceeding two rods; that a new road beginning at a point on the Newton road, so called, on Jamaica Plain aforesaid, on said Prince's land, on the east side of his thorn hedge, being about six rods from his garden fence and summer house, and thence running northerly through the land of said Prince, and land of Mr Goddard, to the Brookline road which passes to the northward of said Pond, and terminating at a point on said Goddard's land, would shorten the distance probably one half between the respective Meeting House in Jamaica Plain and Brookline, thereby reducing very materially the distance between the towns in the southerly part of said County of Norfolk, and the town of Brighton in the County of Middlesex, a place of much resort on business, for the inhabitants residing in the Southern Section of our County; that an instance rarely presents of an equal saving in an equal distance; that said road will not be difficult to work and may be considered of common convenience and necessity:

They therefore pray that the route for said road may be viewed; the road located and made, and the expense thereof apportioned according to law, and as the judgement of said Commissioners may seem meet.

Roxbury, April 23, 1828.

David S. Greenough, Seth P. Whiting,
Joseph Curtis, Benjamin Weld,
William Winchester, Amos Holbrook,
Nathaniel Curtis, John James,
John Lowell, Ebenezer Sever, Jr.
Thomas B. Adams, John H. Davis,
Thomas Greenleaf, Michael Whittemore, Jr.
Benjamin P. Williams, Abner Childs,
Paul Gore, Joseph Arnold,
Joshua Seaver, Abijah Draper,

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Norfolk, ss.

At a meeting of the County Commissioners for said County, May 13, 1828.

Upon the foregoing petition, the Commissioners give notice that they will meet at the house of John Prince, Esquire, in Roxbury, on Monday the twenty third day of June next, at ten o'clock A.M. and thence proceed to view the route over which said road is prayed for. And it is thereupon ordered, that the Petitioners cause an attested copy of their said petition with this notice and order thereon, to be served upon the Clerk of the town of Roxbury thirty days before the time appointed for said view, and also cause a like copy to be published three weeks successively in the Village Register, published in Dedham, the last publication to be fourteen days at least before said view, and also to post up in two or more public places in said Roxbury, like copies at least fourteen days prior to said view, that all persons and corporations interested for or against said Petition, may then and there appear and be heard as they see fit.

Jarius Ware, Clerk.

A true copy of the original petition on file, and order thereon. Attest,

Jarius Ware, Clerk.

The Pigeon Wing Club

Several earlier entries have referred to groups holding dances. These articles have all been taken before the rise of the rise of swing dancing, and the "partner" dances that developed in the early-mid twentieth century. This article comes from the last quarter of the 19th century, when the old New England contra dances had been replaced by new styles. The Pigeon Wing name of the club refers to the Buck and Wing dances, predecessors of later tap dances. Unfortunately, my knowledge of American folk and popular dance history is limited to what I can find on the internet, and verbal descriptions of dances are of little help in understanding them.

The article posted below gives a nostalgic look back at traditional New England dance from a modern (1884), post-Civil War observer. Times had changed, but a Jamaica Plain dance club had decided to take the trouble to learn Grandpa's dances. Sound familiar? It's not so long ago that a swing dance craze was sweeping college campuses - what ever happened to that? Remarkably, Contra dancing has returned to Jamaica Plain in recent years.

Now that I think of it, I learned some kind of square dances in the basement of the Agassiz school as a child. I wonder if that was contra dancing we were doing - sounds similar.


Evening Bulletin March 24 1884


Old-fashioned Dancing in Boston.

The Pigeon Wing Club held its final assembly Wednesday evening on Chestnut avenue, Jamaica Plain. All winter its members have been indefatigably practicing the old-fashioned contra dances; they have placed the "new-fangled" steps, as our grandfathers would say, in a secondary position in the consideration, have scorned the Newport and the latest freaks of the waltz, have regarded with slight attention the schottische and the galop and have expressed a disdainful contempt of the light and frivolous german. But the effects of the partiality for reels and jigs and cotillions was seen Wednesday night in the perfection attained in the execution of most difficult maneuvers. The order of dances, fancifully illustrated with quaint dancing figures in old-time costume, contained the Chorus, Jig, Rory O'More, Money Musk, Virginia Red, College Hornpipe, and one or two modern dances, interspersed with jigs for variety. To modern eyes the sight of the dancers was most novel. Young and old took part, the latter entering into the spirit of the occasion with all possible zest and interest. What animation, vigor, enjoyment! It seems a pity that the old, gay dances should now be forgotten, for if revived they would give spice to the almost cloying sweetness of the waltz. "Chorus Jig" is announced and the music led by John Behr, the popular and skillful manager, strikes up an excruciatingly lively tune. Two long lines are formed down the parlors, ladies on one side, gentlemen on the other. The first complete salute. Attention!. The music gives the rapid time. "First couple down the outside and back. Down the center and back. Cast off. Turn contra corners. Balance and cross over." Terpsichore! What is all that? The contra corners seem complicated, but perceive. While the first lady turns the second gentleman the first gentleman is turning the third lady and vice versa. It must be danced to be understood; and then while the first couple is performing its evolutions, the second couple begins and does likewise, and the third couple, till all are dancing. The music tells you how with its absurd jigging. Everyone is entertained, old and young, till all pause breathless. Here is another dance, Rory O'More, with these changes: The two lines are formed. First couple cross over; down the outside below two and come up the center. Cross to place and, having cast off by going round the next lady or gentleman, balance first by giving right hand to partner and then left. Now is the chance for the pigeon-wing, most wonderful and difficult of balances. Turn contra corners. Balance again to place and begin again. The violin of Mr Behr is becoming uproarious:

Young Rory O'More courted Kathleen Bawn.
He was proud as a hawk and she as soft as the dawn.

The whole line of dancers is bowing and skipping and laughing and joking. The violin goes on unceasingly. "Be aisy," cried Kathleen. Some one cuts a pigeon-wing, and there is great applause. A very funny dance is "Pop goes the weasel." First couple go down outside, then down the centre: then join hands with the next lady letting her pass under the joined hands at the "Pop!" of the weasel; join hands to the next, and so continuously, one couple after the other, till the weasels are popping all down the line. Everyone is amused and joins in the chorus with enthusiasm. "Pop goes the weasel!"

But Money Musk, with its graceful curtsying forward, and pretty turns and merry runs, is the most popular of all contra dances. IN the quick vibrations of the peculiar music one sees in a memory picture the great barn frolic of the country. The barn floor is swept and polished, the grain and hay are bursting the bins and filling the loft, the musicians are scraping and twanging, the homely country folk in best attire are gathering in two long lines. Money Musk! There is a world of gaiety in the words. First couple give right hand and cross over. The lady swings in the center of the third gentleman and the lady, the first gentleman takes the same position between the second lady and gentleman, and the six forward and back. Then the first couple swing in the same way between the sides, the lady between the second and third gentlemen, and the gentleman between the opposite ladies. Forward and back, right and left. It is tedious to tell, but merry to dance. The picture of the old barn fades away, and we see instead of homely country surroundings the parlors of a suburb mansion, the embroidered satins, silks and laces, and the dress suits, and all the fashionable appointments of the Pigeon Wing Club, and instead of the fiddle the classically touched violin is reeling, the jigs, is turning the changes. -- Boston Journal, March 14th.

What, No Condos?

They were still using the "long s" when these listings were published, so I substituted an "f" in place of "s" to give a taste of the typeface, although the two are not identical.


Boston Post Boy January 20, 1766


To be fold, a very convenient Dwelling Houfe on Jamaica Plain, near Jofhua Loring Efq; very fuitable for a Gentleman's Country Seat, with a handfome Garden, Coach Houfe, Stables and all other Conveniences, with about three Acres of good Land. Likewife a Lot of about ten Acre and a half of Wood Land near the Rev'd Mr. Walter's Meeting-Houfe; the Pay may be made eafy to the Purchafer, as good Security will be taken inftead of the Money.


Massachusetts Mercury March 30, 1798


Gentlemen Pleafe to take Notice

TO BE SOLD

A country SEAT, equal, if not fuperiour to any other in this Commonwealth. The local and falubrious fituation of this Eftate is fuch that it needs only by viewed to be admired, being upon the banks of Jamaica Pond, only four and an half miles from State ftreet, Bofton.

The manfion Houfe is brick, and the other offices are of wood, and all built the last fummer, of the beft materials, and by the moft approved workmen in the State; and may be entered upon by the firft day of May. The elevation of the manfion Houfe is five feet, and an excellent Cellar under the whole. On the firft Floor is a handfome Hall, a large Dining Room, a Breakfaft Room, a Drawing Room, a Pantry, a Kitchen and Scullery. - On the fecond Floor is four large handfome Chambers, a Dreffing Room and Lobby. On the third Floor is two beautiful Chambers and a paffage way, leading to the top of the Houfe. - The Couch Houfe, wood-Houfe and Stables are all large and convenient; and the Gardens containing about five acres, with very little expenfe, may be made beautiful indeed.

Also, adjoining the above Premifes,

A large wooden manfion HOUSE, in good repair, which is occupied by three families, which are feperately and conveniently accomodated, and about three acres of Land.

This delightful fituation and valuable Eftate is now offered for Sale, on the following conditions, viz, - One third of hte purchafe Money muft be paid down, the other two thirds, if more convenient to the purchafer, may remain any number of years not exceeding ten; - Provided the intereft is punctually paid. An indifputable title will be given. For further particulars, pleafe to apply on the Premifes. March 30

Jamaica Plain's Plane

As described in this earlier entry, the team of W.C. Whittemore and Walter E. Homan designed and built a biplane in Jamaica Plain that was flown by pilot Melvin W. Hodgdon in a contest sponsored by the Boston Globe. The great-grandson of Mr Whittemore has been kind enough to make these pictures of the plane available. If you compare the front of the plane in the upper picture with the picture from the Boston Globe in the earlier entry, you'll see they are identical.

This is hitting the jackpot! Now I have to find out exactly where the plane was built.

The Sunnyside Kid

Philadelphia Inquirer November 25, 1906


Wanted To Be A Cowboy

Classical Boston Was Not Exciting Enough For This Youth


Boston, Nov. 24 --- "Whoopee," me for the plains and the glorious life of a free-booter," said Harold Carson, a 13-year-old lad, who lives at 12 Sunnyside street, Jamaica Plain, as he struck the Indian Territory, and, seeing a horse standing in front of a bar-room, saddled and bridled, he mounted in true cowboy style and made for the plain beyond.

"Harold" Carson didn't get far. The owner of the pony missed his steed and pretty soon a posse struck Harold's trail, and, despite explanations, he was lodged in jail, charged with horse stealing.

Carson, whose mind was filled with roseate views of the free and easy West, as depicted in the dime novel, left his home November 14, taking with him $40 and leaving a note saying that he had departed for parts unknown. He purchased a ticket for Denver Col. His money exhausted, when he struck Indian Territory, no doubt explains his present predicament.

Curse Of The Mummy's Corn

For the story of General Sumner, you can read the JP Historical Society article here. As far as the story below, it seems to have been common during the time, and a New York Times article of 1903 debunks it. Seeds can last quite a while if dried properly and protected from pests, but apparently the Mummy Corn story was a favorite of the 19th Century. File under "Cool if it was true."

The curse? I guess it's the curse of being scammed.



The Daily Evening Bulletin December 24, 1856


Egyptian, Or Mummy Corn. --- Perhaps the most wonderful and interesting specimens of the fruits of the earth in the Horticultural Exhibition recently closed was some Egyptian Corn, raised in the gardens of Gen. William H. Sumner, of Jamaica Plain, and kindly sent by him for exhibition, thus giving thousands an opportunity of seeing one of the greatest curiosities within our knowledge. The seed from which this corn was raised, was taken from the folds of cloth wrapped round a mummy three or four thousand years ago, and, wonderful as it may seem after being entombed for so many centuries, like a resurrection from the dead, it springs up in new life and vigor. It is undoubtedly the kind of grain for which Joseph's brethren went into the land of Egypt - the same "corn" of which the Bible speaks. It is luxuriant in its growth, and the heads resemble wheat, but are very much larger, forming in inverted conical clusters as large as the closed hand; the kernels are large and very sweet to the taste, and the stock and leaves are similar to our Indian corn. There seems to be no reason why it may not become a valuable addition to our cereal productions, and thanks are due to the gentlemen who are multiplying it and bringing it into notice. --- Boston Journal.

Bussey Institute - Part I

This is the first of a two-part look at the Bussey Instutite. Benjamin Bussey died in 1835, leaving both money and land for an agricultural school that was to be associated with Harvard university. It wasn't until the early 1870s that his heir had left the land and Harvard was able to build the planned institution. Thirty years later, this article described the program in terms only a public relations weasel could love. Agriculture had already moved west, made possible by the railroads and by wondrously fertile soils found in the Midwest. Farming was already a dying business in Massachusetts, and the era of the gentleman's estate was passing as well. Land grant colleges had already been established throughout the country, and agricultural experiment stations created to work with them. By the time this article was written with such enthusiasm, the need for an agricultural school at Harvard was long past. Very soon, the program would be shut down, and replaced with a new biological research center, more in tune with the science of the time, and no longer tied to the agricultural history of New England or the wishes of Benjamin Bussey.

In a side note, I remeber the handsome old stone building, and a few sheep or goats that were kept on the property into the mid-late 1960s. And I remember when the state built the concrete monstrosity for the State Laboratory - that's where they did your Wasserman test to determine whether you were fit to get married. That bare concrete box, sitting above the green of the arboretum, is something that every architect - and government bureaucrat - in the country should get a slap for before they design or approve their first building.

This is a long article, and more college catalog than newspaper article in its details, but I figured than someone more interested in the institution itself than in Jamaica Plain history might get something out of reading through to the end.



Boston Daily Globe September 17, 1899

Harvard Making Farmers.

Remarkable Picturesque School Known as Bussey Institution and Its Interesting Work in Turning Out Practical Farmers, Landscape Gardeners and Architects, and in Instructing the Heirs to Great Estates How to Manage and Improve Their Beautiful Property - Notable Men Who Have Been Students and Workers on This Unusual Farm.


On ground adjoining the Arnold arboretum in Jamaica Plain, within a stone's throw of Forest Hills station of the railroad that runs beside the line of street cars, is an unusually picturesque building, of Victorian Gothic architecture that suggests nothing so much as a convent or a monastery. It breathes an atmosphere of cloistral calm and isolation, and thousands of persons who have ridden, or wheeled, or walked by this mysterious-looking pile have peopled its inner corridors and chambers with persons who have sought this remoteness and seclusion for purposes of meditation and prayer.

As a matter of fact even those who have learned that it is only the Bussey Institution imperfectly apprehend the character of the place and of those who visit it. It is simply the school building of that department of Harvard university which teaches young men how to be accomplished and expert farmers.

The Bussey institution, in other words, is the "Harvard university school of agriculture and horticulture," and it is named after the man who left a large estate to endow this department.

Few people who think of the great Cambridge place of learning ever associate with it the kind of work that is here carried out. The sort of scholar that Harvard turns out is pictured by the imagination as a man more intimately acquainted with book than earth worms and as a great authority on syntax than soils. But from this institution have gone forth in the nearly 30 years of its existence scholars who knew more about crops than cryptograms and could speak more confidently about plowing than about Plutarch. The students in this department of Harvard, unlike those in other departments, have been only anxious to be, and to be known, as genuine farmers.

It has been very successful, however, in securing students from among city bred men, many of them well-born and wealthy, who intend either to establish themselves on farms or to occupy country seats, or to become landscape gardeners. Some of its students even in the short period that the department has been in existence have achieved great distinction as practical farmers,horticulturists and landscape gardeners. It was in this school that Charles Eliot, son of Pres Eliot of the university, acquired the foundation of that learning and skill that made him one of the most successful and distinguished landscape architects in the country. Here, too, have studied the sons of Fredrick Law Olmsted, who have been able to continue the great business left by their father and Mr Eliot.

At least one professor in the university has been a student at the Bussey Institution, Robert T. Jackson, professor of paleontology.

Two men of wealth, sons of distinguished families, who have achieved much distinction in agriculture and horticulture are Gen Francis H. Appleton and Nathaniel Thayer Kidder. Gen Appleton, a Somerset club man, has been a successful practical farmer and has been president of the Massachusetts horticultural society and has added under his own direction to the beauty of the great Kidder estate in Milton. Both of these gentlemen were students of Harvard university school of agriculture.

Dr William H. Ruddick of South Boston is one of the well-known graduates of the institution. Like many other men, intending to enter a professional career, he chose a course in the agricultural school as a valuable adjunct to his other training.

Scattered throughout the commonwealth are prosperous farmers, some of them selectmen of their towns, who can say that they learned to be farmers at Harvard university.

The school has had students from Spain, Japan, Costa Rica, and other remote places. The Japanese and Costa Rican students took more than ordinary interest in the subjects that they studied. The Japanese students were able to satisfy their tremendous curiosity concerning American methods fo farming, so different in some ways from their own. The Costa Ricans were intensely interested because they were learning things about farming that would make their coffee and banana plantations, already extremely profitable, infinitely more valuable if conducted on the greatly improved plans which they had opportunity to study.

All these farmers - rich, poor, foreign and native - worked cheerfully side by side in that particularly democratic atmosphere that farming produces.

The degree that the school confers is not, of course, so valuable, financially, as some degrees that Harvard confers, but its value is increasing all the time. The students do not strive so earnestly for the mere degree, and many of them apparently care little for it. But they all thirst and hunger after knowledge, and that they acquire in abundance. While the school has been in active operation not much more than 25 years, it has turned out some scholars who, if they are not very famous now, are certain to be by and by. At least one former student is in the forestry department at Washington, another is close to the head of one of the greatest agricultural journals in the country, several are prosperous landscape gardeners and architects, and many are well-to-do teachers and professors, while the school has on its list of alumni several members of the richest and most conspicuous families in New England.

Gen Francis H.Appleton, by the way,enjoys the distinction of being the first regular student the school had.

It has been said before that this is a school for farmers and gardeners. It is exactly that, and the course of instruction with the methods of study are such as only persons who have a genuine farmer's love for the earth would care to undertake.

The theory and practice of farming is taught by an experienced practical farmer, who conducts a big farm of his own at Hingham, Mr Edmund Hersey. He is the superintendent of the Bussey farm of 200 acres, connected with the school, where practical demonstration is afforded of the use of fertilizers and farming tools and machines.

Instruction is given by lectures and recitations, and by practical exercises in the laboratories greenhouses and fields, every student being taught to make experiments, study specimens and observe for himself.

The aim of the teachers is to give the student a just idea of the principles upon which the arts of agriculture and horticulture depend; to teach him how to make intelligent use of the scientific literature which relates to these arts; and to enable him to put a proper estimate upon those kinds of evidence which are obtained by experiments and by the observation of natural objects. Examinations are held statedly to test the student's proficiency.

Mr Hersey lectures on such practical subject as the selection of farms for special purposes, soils best adapted to different crops, the location of farm buildings, the clearing land of rocks and stumps, the building of farm roads, the preparation and management of cranberry bogs, the selection of stock for farm purposes, with direction for breeding, the breeding and care of poultry, the construction of poultry houses, on how to compost manures and to save those waste materials of the farm which contain plant food, how to buy, mix and apply commercial fertilizers, and on the preparation of the soil for different crops, cultivation, harvesting and marketing of crops, fruit-growing and market gardening.

In the department of horticulture a graduate of the university, Mr Benj. M. Watson, lectures on the preparation of soils for horticultural and floricultural purposes, the management of plants, including methods of propagation, horticultural improvements, the methods of obtaining new varieties of vegetables, fruits and flowers, the arrangement and care of flower gardens, nurseries and orchards, the construction and care of greenhouses, plant cellars, pits, frames and hotbeds, the principles of landscape gardening, the value of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, for ornamental purposes. Practical greenhouse and garden work by the student supplements the lectures. Mr Watson is the son of a well-known nurseryman at Plymouth.

Students interested in the cultivation of trees and shrubs have the opportunity of seeing them grown in great variety and in large numbers for the Arnold arboretum, on grounds adjacent to the school.

In natural history, lectures are given by Mr E.W. Morse.The course is an introduction to the study of organic life. Plants and animals are contrasted. The cell and its significance, the different parts of living organisms and their uses, the physiology of plants and animals, the methods of recognizing weeds, grasses and other plants, and of destroying weeds, the structure and habit of insects, and the methods of combating those kinds which are injurious, the detection habits and prevention of smuts, rusts, blights and mildews, the relation of bacteria to dairying, the sanitation of farm buildings, heredity, variation and development, the domestication of plants and animals, and the derivation of improved varieties, cross-breeding and hybridizing and the influence of insects in fertilizing plants, are among the topics of study.

In agricultural chemistry, the dean of the school, Prof F.H. Storer, lectures on soil, air and water in their relations to the plant, the food of plants, manures, general and special, chemical principles of tillage, irrigation, systems of rotation and of special crops and farms, the food of animals, simple and mixed rations, the values of different kinds of fodders, of the means of determining fodder values, and of the methods of using fodders to the best advantage.

Laboratory instruction in chemical analysis is given to those students who wish it.

Instead of taking the full regular courses above described, which occupy the whole of the academic year, October to June, inclusive, short courses of instruction on a variety of subjects, included in the regular stated courses, may be selected by young men of ability and judgement who cannot afford to spare much time for advanced study. As examples of these short courses may be mentioned:

Lessons on market gardening and fruit growing, 10 weeks; lessons on the propagation of plants by seeds and cuttings, 8 weeks; lessons on budding and grafting, 2 weeks; lessons on pruning, 2 weeks; lessons on the principles of tillage, 5 weeks; lessons on artificial fertilizers, 8 weeks; lessons on farm manures and composts, 6 weeks; lessons on injurious insects, 6 weeks; lessons on injurious fungi and bacteria, including the management of milk, 6 weeks.

The regular exercises of the school are supplemented by excursions for studying farms, animals and dairies. Opportunity is found in this way to discuss the methods of managing milk farms and poultry farms, and to inspect recent improvements in the construction of farm buildings, and of buildings used for the preservation of meat, apples, pears, cranberries and other fruits. There are field lessons also for the better examination and comprehension of objects of agricultural natural history.

The farm connected with the school is devoted primarily to the production of hay, which is consumed on the farm by horses taken to board. Members of the school have constant opportunity to observe the methods of procedure by which the fertility of the fields is kept up. The instructor in agriculture explains the structure and operation of improved implements for preparing land for the growth of crops and for harvesting all kinds of farm products, and special effort are made to teach the student how to select tools and machines which are properly constructed and best adapted to do the desired work.

The regular fee is $150 a year, but for the special short courses, which are designed for hard-working farmers, a fee of only $8 is charged for 12 lessons in six weeks.

One of the picturesque scenes at the school is that of the class in horticulture, in the attire of farmers, working in the greenhouses on the grounds, grafting roots and leaves and propagating seeds.

It is to the scientific farmer such as this school produces that New England must look for the redemption of the abandoned farm. When the farmer who has done all that back-breaking effort can do to make the thankless soil of the worked-out farm produce something has failed, the scientific farmer, with his greater knowledge of chemistry and of the sciences that pertain to agriculture, steps in and forces the apparently barren field to yield a remunerative profit for his labor.

This, it is said, is what a school like Harvard's does for agriculture.

It enables the scientific student of agriculture actually to make two ears of corn grow where the farmer who has relied only on "elbow grease' has given up the task of trying to make even one grow, and this with less effort than the old system involved.

The secretary of agriculture has said that the sick fields of New England need doctors to administer to them the right kind of tonics, and that after proper treatment by skilled land physicians they will regain their lost health and fertility.

The medicine chest of this land doctor, such as Harvard's school produces, is filled with all kinds of fertilizers and recipes for diet and exercise that will be administered to the farms that are all run down, and are distinguished by that tired feeling, and in this medicine chest the agricultural sharps have great confidence.

Waxing Poetical

Columbian Centinel January 30, 1822



Lines on leaving "Jamaica Plain."

Sweet Plain of Jamaica I must bid thee farewell,
But I ne'er can forget thee, never, no never;
Thy Lake, and they views, they walks oft will tell,
Of joys now departed, but I trust not forever.

How oft with the friend of my bosom, I've stray'd
On they banks lovely Lake, and watch'd thee below;
And the Sun's setting rays, which sportively play'd
On they surface, reflecting a camelion glow.

How oft have we paused to catch the soft breeze,
As it pass'd o'er thy bosom in murmurs so sweet;
Or list'ned to hear its soft sighs through the trees,
For its whispers of love it would often repeat.

Those moments of pleasure so calm and serene,
Are fled, 'tis true, but the remembrance never;
Oh! when I forget them, forget the sweet never;
Then life will have quitted this bosom forever.

November 9, 1821 Helenora.

Jamaica Plain Academy - 1807

New England Palladium March 10, 1807


Jamaica Plain Academy

For Young Ladies.

Mrs Cranch and Daughters, inform their Friends and Public, that they have taken a house on Jamaica Plain, between 4 and 5 miles from Boston, and within a short distance of the Rev Mr Gray's meeting-house, where their spring Term, will open on the fifteenth of April next. The situation of Jamaica Plain is so healthy, that it is emphatically called the Montpelier of America, and combines more advantages to such a Seminary, than any other place within the vicinity of our Metropolis. Deeply impressed with the responsibility attached to her profession, Mrs. C makes it a material branch of her instruction to instil good principles and kind affections into the minds of her youthful Pupils; a love of Order, and an attachment to truth; that while the Mechanical parts of Education progress, their minds may expand with a wish to excel from a higher motive, than the gaze of the multitude. Those parents, who intrust her with the care of their children, may rely on a Maternal attention to their health, as well as manners. She therefore hopes for the continuance of the confidence & support of those, who take pleasure in cheering the widow, and upholding the Orphan.

The following are her established Terms.


Board - - - per quarter - - - - 30 Dols.

Reading, Writing, English, Grammar, Composition, History, Arithmetic, and all kinds of plain needle work, - - - - - -- - - - - 6 Dols.

Geography (including the use of Globes, Maps, &c) the rudiments of Astronomy, Rhetoric, and whatever else a young lady's taste may lead to, in the higher branches of polite literature, together with working muslin in all its varieties - - - - - - - 6 Dols.

Embroidery - - - - - - - - - - 4 Dols.

Music and Dancing taught by approved Masters, Instructors in the French language and in painting will be procured if required.

March 10 (t Ap 15.)

Mary Boyle O'Reilly

Mary Boyle O'Reilly was another in what seems to have been an endless supply of Boston's woman activist/reformers. She was active in Catholic charitable organizations, women's labor and social issues, settlement houses, prisons, education, and Irish issues as well. She ran for public office, went to Europe during World War I and sent back articles to the Boston Globe, and was no mean gardener as well. Some people seem to fit 25 hours of activity into each 24 hour day,




November 26, 1905




Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly was born in Charlestown on May 18, 1873. Her father was the Irish patriot, poet and journalist, John Boyle O'Reilly. Her mother, whose contributions under the name of "Agnes Smiley" in a periodical called the Young Crusader, had led the poet to make her acquaintance, was Mary Smiley Murphy. Miss O'Reilly is the eldest of four daughters.

Her father, during his whole married life in Boston lived at 34 Winthrop st, Charlestown, and in the same vicinity the candidate for the school board has dwelt until within the present year, when she moved to Jamaica Plain.

Her mother had been educated in the public schools of Charlestown, and the daughter went to the Charlestown grammar school. She attended for some years the convent of the Sacred Heart, Providence. In the parish of St Mary's Charlestown, three generations, grandmother, mother and daughter, have been parishioners, and friends of Rev John W. McMahon, DD, who had been a boyhood chum of Miss O'Reilly's uncle, James S. Murphy.

In 1899 she took a short course at the Gilman school for girls, Cambridge, with intention of entering Radcliffe, but owing to illness was obliged to abandon her set studies for a time.There she has since resumed privately under tutors, and maintains them in courses now.

After travel in Europe and the East, she returned to Boston and with Mrs Warren M. Hill, Miss Maud M. Rockwell and Miss Margaret Carey, established the Guild of St Elizabeth, East Springfield st, as settlement house for children.

The institution grew out of a series of sermons by the Rev Thomas I Gasson SJ, of Boston college, of which Miss Rockwell's brother, the Rev Joseph H. Rockwell, SJ, is vice-president. The guild began its career with three dollars in its treasury, and now owns its own house, with a day nursery of 50 babies and numerous educational and social features.

Miss O'Reilly is an officer in the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, the Tuberculosis society, the State Conference of Charities and half a dozen other charitable or philanthropic organizations.

Within a few days of Miss O'Reilly was appointed by Mayor Whelton a trustee of the children's institutions, but it is understood she will relinquish this post.


November 22, 1905

Active In Charities. Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly New Trustee for Children.


Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly, who was appointed a trustee for children by acting Mayor Whelton Monday, to take the place of Mrs Elizabeth c. Keller, who has resigned, is the daughter of Mrs Mary (Murphy) O'Reilly of Charlestown and the late John Boyle O'Reilly. She has taken a deep interest in philanthropic work all her life, and has been an active worker in the charities connected with the Roman Catholic church. She is a charter member of St Elizabeth's guild, which conducts a settlement house for children in the South End; and she has been secretary of the guild since it formation.

Miss O'Reilly is a member of the board of directors of the women's educational union, and for the last two years has been a member of the examining committee of the Boston public library. She has also written a great deal for periodicals and magazines.

Miss O'Reilly resides at 39 Eliot st, Jamaica Plain.


February 2, 1908


What Country Girls Find Terrors of Lodging Houses Outlined. Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly Describes Boston Conditions. Makes Suggestions for Needed Reforms.


Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly made a most interesting and thrilling address upon the conditions in Boston lodging houses, at the Twentieth Century club luncheon yesterday afternoon, and at the close of her vivid description of unpleasant, unhealthy and even immoral situations, she suggested a remedy in the form of an independent commission - perhaps under the board of health - with full authority of inspection and regulation.

She said in part: "I shall not go into terrible details, for it is our aim to keep out all unnecessary sensationalism. We have been studying the problem of the lodging house in ward 12, where the St Elizabeth guild house is situated. That which has interested us most was the problem of the young girls from the country, 75,000 of whom are in Boston lodging houses.

"They have come from the simple, quiet home life of the country, and dropped down suddenly, and, without experience, into the strange and complex civilization of a great city. Here they find the lodging houses almost on a level with the water - few of them being more then eight feet above - with untiled sewers which it is not 'practical politics' to fix, improper plumbing, houses unventilated, and every room with a cellary smell. Most everything of food is fried, even the bread, and the girl accustomed to good cooking cannot get food of the right sort. So she becomes racked with rheumatism and other pains.

"But the social aspect is far worse than the physical. These girls come here poor, anemic and untrained, and therefore have to take the first position they can get. Their pay is hardly sufficient for them to live on, and they are always within a week of absolute poverty, and sometimes closer. They have no money to pay for the pleasures they crave, and there is nothing left for them but the 'penny dreadfuls,' dime shows and dances.

Absolute Loneliness.

"They are generally surrounded with an atmosphere of absolute loneliness, there generally being no parlor where they can see a friend, and the rules of the house forbid all wholesome liberties. Miss Rockwell, my associate in the guild, and I cannot agree with the claim that the landlady cannot afford a parlor. If she understood things as we do she would have one.

"Many of them, however, feel and act as if it is best not to know too much. One of them, when describing the reasons why she ejected a lodger, said to me, 'I don't mind when a lodger has a respectable kind of drunk, the same as you or I would, Miss O'Reilly, but when he throws his wife's trunk out of the front window, you see it is liable to give the house a bad name.'

"But there are some who are not even so particular as this, for they do not care what takes place. I have come to the point where I believe if the police, knowing the facts, won't act, other authorities out to shut doff the water, stop the inmates from paying rent until the evils are remedied, and warn the owner of the property that he will be responsible.

[the article continues in this vein.]



March 15, 1909

Future Bright. Miss O'Reilly Foresees a "Greater Ireland." Lectures in Her Native Parish of St Mary's, Charlestown.


Under the auspices of St Mary's guild, Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly, eldest daughter of the late John Boyle O'Reilly, lectured last night in St Mary's church, Charlestown, before an audience of 1000, composed mostly of old neighbors and friends of her illustrious father. Her subject was "Greater Ireland, Her Ancient Glory and Her Future Greatness."

The lecture was supplemented by an excellent concert of Irish music and readings.

Rev Dr John W. McMahon, pastor of the church, presented Miss O'Reilly. He said it was a great pleasure to him to introduce the lecturer, who was born in the parish, who was the daughter of his dear friend, John Boyle O'Reilly, and who had the affection of her many friends and the friends of her father.

In opening her lecture Miss O'Reilly said: "I have come to stand by the old altar where my grandparents came to be married, to speak, very briefly, for memory's sake, not of war or rapine or vengeance, but of the noble memories that the children of this generation must learn from your lips lest, being ignorant, they lose pride in our nation's history.

"It is not proper that I should stand near the altar where we all must pray for forgiveness and speak needlessly of Cromwell or the accursed story of Drogheda, but it is just and right that we whose faith and race pride are so mingled should hold at least one night in all the year sacred to recalling, even in our sanctuaries, the ancient glory of the motherland; the causes that led to her ruin, and the reasons we have for a new born hope in a Greater Ireland."

Then followed an interesting account of events in the history of Ireland, of the hardships of its people and the laws passed by England endeavoring to make that country an English-Ireland. "This condition," she said, "is gradually wearing away the lands which were taken from the people of Ireland by the English government are gradually being restored to their rightful owners."

[more of the same follows.]


August 29, 1909
Burning of The Convent - A Study Of The Dead Past.


Under these headlines, Mary Boyle O'Reilly wrote a major article reviewing the events and conditions that led up to the burning of the Ursuline convent in Charlestown Ma. in 1834. The article is far to large to transcribe, and not relevant to Jamaica Plain other than to show Miss O'Reilly's interest and dedication to the subject. It is also of interest that the editors of the Boston Globe were willing to give her the opportunity to write such a long article on the subject. Somewhere along the line, Miss O'Reilly evolved from an advocate for social reform to a journalist as well.


March 3, 1910

Plea For Working Girls. Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly Addresses the Federation of Woman's Clubs at Jamaica Plain.


Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly was the guest of the Woman's clubs conference at the Central Congregational church, Jamaica Plain, yesterday afternoon, and spoke on "Working Girls." Miss O'Reilly said that there are 150,000 wage earning women in Massachusetts, two-thirds of whom are under 30 years of age, and that 20 percent of them are out of work through no fault of their own. The wage earning of girls begins as soon as they can get their certificate, at 16 years of age.

"These school girls are eagerly sought by large employers of female help," said Miss O'Reilly, "because they are cheap, alert, ambitious and dependable and ignorant of their own rights and privileges. Girl workers go into the industries in four groups. First, a pitifully small number choose the trade; the second, turned out by misfortune, take the first thing offered; the third are born to work and accept anything that comes without energy or interest, and the fourth are girls who have been stunted by malnutrition or defective minds or bodies and who work only under pressure.

"Many excellent people expect poverty to be interesting when it is a little ragged, and the working girl is almost never ragged. No working woman wants charity. Today a very large part of our unprotected girl workers earn wages that will not supply the urgent needs of life. They work to the extreme limit of endurance under conditions that make it impossible to obey the elementary laws of health."

Miss O'Reilly made an earnest plea for pleasures for the working girl, instancing that the girl who is worn out by her work needs relaxation. Dancing and the theatre, when they are safe-guarded, are real pleasures for the working girl, she declared.


May 15, 1910




An Eye-Enchanting Garden.

Wealth of Blooms Grown by Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly at Her Home in Jamaica Plain - Beds for Frendship Growths, Holy Land Flowers, Sweet Scented Delights for the Blind, Glories Developed From the Old Ursuline Convent Grounds in Charlestown Before That Institution was Burned.


An ideal, satisfying garden, one that grips the attention of passers-by, is that schemed by Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly at her home in Jamaica Plain, in a quiet street near the pond. In her plans she strove to get away as far as possible from the style of gardens to be found around most homes, with their mathematically arranged beds and walks, and to make for each plant conditions so natural that there would be no possibility of failure in inducing them to thrive. Following this idea, she designed a series of gardens within a garden; a dozen groupings, with plants in each that bear out the significance of the name that is given to each collection. For instance, the "friendship garden," in which is found only plants that have been sent to her as gifts. Near the "friendship garden" is a little inclosure(sic) that might not be noticed, unless one's attention were directed to it. It is filled with Holy Land flowers, tiny growths that were brought from that faraway land by Miss O'Reilly herself.

Another inclosure is called "the nuns' garden" because most of the plants therein were taken from the garden that surrounded the Ursuline convent in Charlestown before it was burned. The "garden for the blind" is planted with sweet scented flowers and foliage growths for distributing among the blind.

Excepting the shrubs and trees every growing thing about the grounds was planted by Miss O'Reilly. Thousands of tulips and narcissus flourish there. In getting together such a collection of narcissus she purchased from a greenhouse man the old bulbs that he had forced for the trade in his greenhouses and which he found but little use for thereafter. For a small sum she obtained these. While useless for further forcing for a commercial purpose they have improved their flowering each year since planting.

All the annuals are started in the house in the spring and are afterward planted in the hotbed at the back of the house. For a tiny affair this hotbed produces wonderful results. It is but the size of a hotbed sash, sunk into the ground about three feet, and boarded to a height of two feet above the ground. With the cold frame this hotbed is the source of the thousands of plants that are used each year.

The abundance of flowers about the place are all utilized, and each morning, shortly after sunrise in the summer, the flowers that are to be sent to the city for distribution are gathered. In order to insure freshness, a wheel table carrying dozens of bottles and jars filled with water is pushed from bed to bed. The flowers are cut and immediately put into the water, thereby avoiding the wilting that would result by any other treatment. This flower gathering is a daily performance in fair weather and hundreds of blooms are delivered each day at the hospitals.

The hardy plants occupy a place of prominence, not only because of the numbers of them, but rather because of the groupings and arrangement for consecutive blooming, and the fact that all have been grown from seedlings. Digitalis, aquilegia, cardinal flower, troillus, campanulas, etc, are to be found enlivening the place with their blooms.

The attractive part of the whole is that the financial requirements to produce such a successful showing are very small, particularly when the results are considered. Each year Miss O'Reilly spends about $50 on the garden. This includes the cost of a man for the early spring cleaning and the weekly grasscutting. Beyond this there is comparatively no expense, as the requisite stock is grown from seed and the cost of seed for such purposes does not exceed $5.




Source: all articles come from the Boston Globe.

Schoolmaster Hill - Franklin Park

If you refer back to the map in the previous entry, this structure is labeled "The Arbor." It sits on top of Schoolmaster hill overlooking the golf course at Franklin Park. As you approach it, it has the feel of a British archeological site.



This was taken just inside the doorway shown in the picture above. The columns obviously once supported a roof.



Continuing through the structure, the low walls extend in the direction of Blue Hill avenue, with little step-down "balconies" on the right that face out over the meadow/golf course.



This is looking back to the "Arbor" walk. Apparently, this was intended to support rose arbors, but they were removed early on in the history of the park.


The view overlooking the golf course. God I hate golf. You can see a bit of the Blue Hills, but only the lower Quincy side. Trees and a rising grade to the south-east hide the rest of the Blue Hill range from sight.


At the end of the stone structure, this plaque honoring Ralph Waldo Emerson sits on a Roxbury puddingstone boulder. Frederick Law Olmsted named this hill Schoolmaster after the time Emerson spend living in a cabin on the site.

Mystery Solved... For What It's Worth

Richards, L.J. 1899 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David Rumsey Collection.

I'm reposting this map from my earlier entry on the lost Franklin Park reservoir. I said in that entry that I wanted to find out where the reservoir was, and today I took advantage of some nice weather to poke around Hagborne hill. Sure enough, I found a relatively level area with several manhole covers sitting strangely out of place in the woods. No doubt, that's the reservoir, marked by the "bourne" of "Hagbourne Hill" on the above map. There are picnic benches in various states of disrepair about the area, and a collection of metal trash barrels that are apparently kept there for the winter. If nothing else, the area seems to be a dog-walkers' paradise. Below is my manhole proof of location of the never-used reservoir of Franklin Park. Now I've satisfied my strange curiousity about the never-used, long-forgotten hole in the ground.


Does anyone wonder why there are manhole covers in the woods?


This is the only level land of this area in the "Wilderness" section of Franklin Park. There are a good 7-8 manhole covers within view of this picture. I assume the underground reservoir across much of the area.

Chinese On Trial

This is the kind of article that leaves me wondering whether I read it correctly. Newspaper articles from these years were not shy about describing suicides and terrible injuries, but sexual matters tend to be cloaked in euphemism. I expect that the reader was trusted to understand exactly what was being implied, but I find it difficult in this case to know whether I might be reading too much into the wording of the article. We have a 15 year old girl with a new baby, and an assault the previous year. Is that assault as in a kick in the pants, or is it something else? Hmmm... We do learn without doubt that there was a Chinese laundry on South street in 1921. We also see another case of Jamaica Plain boys trying to "rescue a prisoner." There seems to have been a lot of that going on before the days of portable radios.



Boston Daily Globe October 26, 1921


Chinese On Trial On Girl's Complaint

Assault by Laundryman and His Partner Alleged

Three Jamaica Plain Youths Fined for Attack on Officer


The West Roxbury Court, Judge Perrins presiding, was in session until 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon, establishing a record for that court.

Woo Yee, a Jamaica Plain Chinese, was arraigned on charges of assault brought by a 15-year-old girl, who carried in her arms an infant born to her several weeks ago. She alleged that Woo Yee and Yeo Sam, Yee's partner in a laundry on South st, Jamaica Plain, assaulted her in 1920.

Lee Yam, a well-known Chinese of the West End, was brought to court by officers who had been misled by Yee Sam, now a fugitive from justice. Sam met with officers while they were searching for him and pointed out Lee Yam as the man named in the warrant. Yam was discharged.

The case against Woo Yee was carried over until today when the defence will present its case.

The girl said, during her testimony, that she visited Woo Yee several times voluntarily.


Arthur W. McLaughlin, 21; Mark Kelley, 19, and Joseph F. Vogel, 18, all of Jamaica Plain, were each fined $10 on a charge of assault of battery and $25 for attempting to rescue a prisoner. The charges resulted from alleged attacks on Special Officer Malcolm Campbell during a dance-hall disturbance two weeks ago. They appealed.

The Great Comb Caper

On May 1, 1900, police chased a man through the streets of Jamaica Plain, as described here. Perhaps inspired by that incident, just a few days later the boys of Call street decided to get in on the act, and chased four young men through the streets. Hilarity ensues. In the end, the chase was far more impressive than the crime.


Boston Daily Globe May 6, 1900


Hot Thief Chase.

Jamaica Plain Stirred Up Once More.

Four Men Followed by an Army of Yelling Youngsters.

Finally Apprehended and Placed in Cells.

They Tell a Queer Story of Their Experiences.

Admit They Stole From Boston & Maine Freight Car.


Once again Jamaica Plain was stirred up over the chasing of thieves by the police of that section when about 6 o'clock last evening, after another cross-country run, four men fell into the hands of the officers of the law. They are William Scholes, John Dwyer, Joseph Keller and Frank Costello.

Some boys playing on Call st. near the tracks of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad, saw four men walk along the tracks, and when a little beyond the Jamaica Plain station step out on to the bank. In a moment they lay down. The boys gathered to see the men go to sleep, as they supposed, on the railroad bank. One of them suggested that they tell the "cops," and the idea was at once approved by all the youngsters. They had gone but a short distance on their errand when they met officer William M. Frank, and they told him about "some fellers on the railroad bank."

As soon as the men saw the policeman coming they ran down the bank, jumped the fence to Call st and started to run. Frank dashed after them. He grabbed one, who proved later to be Frank Costello, and started for the station with him.

The other three men had run down Call st and turning into Everett st went up the hill. At their heels was a mob of 50 boys yelling like wild Indians. Up the hill they went, past some of Jamaica Plain's finest residents and through some intricate turnings on to Revere st. At the foot of Revere st is the police station and directly toward it the fleeing men were running. All along the route of the chase windows were opened by residents, startled by the racket, and excited voices were heard inquiring, "What's the matter?"

In the station house were Lieut Chase, Sergt Bruce and patrolman Berry. Their attention was attracted by the noise, and glancing out of the window saw the men coming down the hill pursued by the boys. Running out of the station they arrived at the street at the same time the men had reached that spot. Patrolman Berry grabbed Wm. Scholes and turned him over to Lieut Chase. Sergt Bruce captured Joseph Keller. There was only one remaining, and he turned down Maple pl and jumping over a fence got into Brown pl. But Berry was at his heels and soon had him. He proved to be John Dwyer.

When questioned at the station Scholes said he was 20 years old and his home was in Springfield. Dwyer gave his age as 20 and his home in Montreal. Cantello said he was 16 and lived at 224 Harrison av, Boston. Keller said his residence was at Peabody and that he was 21.

They told the police they had been working on cattle ships, coming across on the Kansas, which arrived in Boston last Monday. After leaving the boat they went over the road to Portland, Me. Thursday night they started back to Boston, walking to Portsmouth, N.H. At this place they were given permission by a freight brakeman to ride on his train. Soon after leaving Lynn the train stopped, either to leave or take on some more cars. One of them found a car open, and all four went in. Seeing a good-sized box there, they took it out and opened it. It was filled with combs. After dividing the spoils, they put the box back into the car. Then they went further back on the train, and getting onto another car, came to Boston, arriving yesterday morning.

When asked what they were doing out in Jamaica Plain, they said they were on their way to Hyde Park, where they expected to get lodgings at a police station over night. It was their intention to sell the combs later.

The men were placed in cells to await their trial Monday morning in the West Roxbury district court.

For some time past the section has been the field for a lot of petty thieving, house breaking, while families were away, and the like. The patrolmen have had strict orders to keep their eyes open for suspicious characters. That this is being done is evidenced by the fact that during the past week nine men have been arrested by the police of the division, and have proved to be important captures. Besides this a number of suspicious characters have been followed and driven out of the district.

Capt Brown is determined to clear the section of the house workers, and he is being ably supported by those under him.

Christ The King Ukrainian Catholic Church

Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church, 2008




I've been sitting on this article for a while, waiting to get a picture to post with it. I haven't been able to find a picture taken at the time it was built, so this will do. This is the youngest church by far to bless this site, but it won't be the last. In fact, it won't be the last Ukrainian church, because I've yet to post an entry for St Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox church in Forest Hills.

Christ the King church overlooks Forest Hills street, and backs to Franklin Park. Their wide street frontage opens up Forest Hills street, and keeps it from feeling too crowded.


Jamaica Plain Citizen July 10, 1952


To Break Ground For New Ukrainian Catholic Church.


Father Tom, pastor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Ukrainian Church of Boston, announces that the breaking of the ground ceremony which was to have been held two weeks ago but which was called off on account of rain will take place this coming Sunday afternoon, July 13, at 2:30 p.m. at 118 Forest Hills street, Jamaica Plain. Archbishop Richard Cushing, D.D. will preside and many of the Monsignori and Clergy of both the Western and Eastern Rites will attend.

The ceremony will begin with the chanting of the ancient Moleben-Litany to the Sacred Heart, under the great directress, Mrs. Helene Sydoriak Haire.

After the breaking of the ground ceremony there will be, according to the old Ukrainian custom, a picnic which will include Ukrainian food, singing and dancing.

Fr. Tom extends a cordial invitation to all who would like to attend.

Pauline Agassiz Shaw

I promised an entry for the wife of Quincy Shaw, and here I deliver. Pauline Agassiz Shaw was the daughter of Swiss scientist and Harvard professor, Louis Agassiz. As with the daughter, the father will require an entry of his own. Pauline Shaw was everywhere in the world of Boston philanthropy, subscribing to seemingly every cause. Her special interests were in education and the care of poor women and children. She was known as the "godmother of kindergarten" for her support of the institution in Boston. While Elizabeth Peabody was the "mother of the kindergarten movement," it was Pauline Agassiz Shaw's money that bankrolled the first kindergartens in Boston, and led to the city of Boston absorbing the classes into its school system. With the success of her kindergartens, she moved on to funding nurseries and later settlement houses to aid the entire family. Rather than summarize her career, I decided to post this article, which gives you a flavor of the time that would be lost in my translation. They certainly had a way with words in those days.

While a school in Jamaica Plain was named after her father, Pauline Agassiz Shaw was similarly honored by the city of Boston in Dorchester. There is a 1917 tribute to her available online here.







Boston Daily Globe May 14, 1905

Angel To Poor Children Of Boston

Mrs Pauline Agassiz Shaw, a Great-Hearted Woman.

Daughter of the Famous Naturalist Now Supports Entirely Five Day Nurseries in This City - Cost to Her Must be Many Thousands of Dollars Yearly - Babies Cared for and Mothers of the Tenements Helped in Various Ways - Boys and Girls Amused and Instructed.


"You sleepy still, Tony? You must rouse up, for mother will soon be coming for her baby."

The little chap of two summers sat up in the snowy white little crib and poked his chubby fists into his big black eyes - the beautiful eyes of the Italian race.

Directly across the narrow aisle formed by long rows of white beds was a fair-haired, blue-eyed little girl seemingly less than 2 years of age lying on her back under the snowy counterpane gazing in placid contentment at the ceiling over her.

"It's get-up time, Lucy," said the attendant, as she patted one of the child's flushed cheeks lightly. "Mother will be here soon."

"Me go home," said the child.

"Yes, you'll go home just as soon as mother comes for you. I suppose you are ready to go home, too, Sally."

This time the attendant stopped by the side of a little bed in which a jet-black little descendant of Ham had raised herself to one elbow and was eyeing the attendant and the visitor sleepily.

"Sleepy still, Sally? Well, if you are you just lay down and take another nap. Brother will not be here for you until 5 tonight. He said when he left you here this morning that he would have to go to East Boston after school, and that he would be an hour late in calling for you."

There were 30 or 40 of the little white beds in the room, and there was a child in every bed. Most of them seemed to be the children of foreign-born parents, but now and then one saw a child of undoubted American ancestry. Some of the children were "Just over" from Italy or Russia or Poland or Armenia or some other land across the seas and early discovering that Helen Keller's name of the "City of Kind Hearts" had not been inaptly applied to the city of Boston.

Boston had the deserved reputation of being one of the most philanthropic cities in America. Its "Directory of Charities" is a large-sized volume, and when one looks it over one is convinced that there is still a great deal of the milk of human kindness in the world and that the spirit of philanthropy runs high in Boston.

Its list of great-hearted men and women is a long and honorable one, and far up toward the top of the list stands the name of one woman who has for many years devoted her time and her money with unstinting generosity toward bettering the conditions of the poor children of the city, and helping their mothers to bear the heavy burdens that come to those of the tenements. This great-hearted woman is Mrs Pauline Agassiz Shaw, who stands at the head of the woman philanthropists of Boston.

The daughter of the great naturalist, Louis Agassiz, it was but a fulfilment of the law of heredity that she should be a woman of high ideals and unusual force of character. Nor was it to be wondered at that she should take a very great interest in the cause of education.

Mrs Shaw was one of the first women in Boston to recognize the value of the kindergarten as an educational force, and it was through her generosity that the first kindergartens for the children of the poor were established in this city. For 10 years Mrs Shaw supported at her own charge Kindergartens all over Boston at an annual expense of many thousands of dollars per year, for she bore the entire expense, including rent of rooms, salaries of teachers, etc. In time the school board of Boston became convinced of the high educational value of the kindergarten and included it in the school system of the city, thereby relieving Mrs Shaw.

Then Mrs Shaw gave her attention to the day nurseries, the first of which she had established in Boston in the year 1878, so that for nearly 30 years Mrs Shaw has carried on this form of benevolent and philanthropic work in the city. These days nurseries have gradually enlarged their sphere of usefulness until they have become social settlements in the scope of their work and influence.

Visitors to the late St Louis fair may have noticed a large number of photographs illustrating the work of these day nurseries or social settlements. These photographs attracted a great deal of attention particularly on the part of those interested in educational and philanthropic work. Some of the photographs are used in illustrating this article.

Mrs Shaw now supports entirely five day nurseries in Boston. They are located in the tenement house districts of the city. One is on Ruggles st in the same block in which that other philanthropic institution, the Ruggles-st church is situated; another is on North Bennett st, in the very heart of "Little Italy"; a third is in the thickly congested tenement house district of Albany st; the fourth is at Cottage pl in Roxbury and the fifth is in Cambridgeport.

Various names are given to these institutions. They are called day nurseries, neighborhood houses, children's houses, social settlements, and one grateful mother has been known to refer to them as "mother's blessings." They are very much alike in the general scope of their work, and all have been the means of social salvation to hundreds and even thousands of the poor of the city.

The cost of maintaining them is known only to Mrs Shaw and her secretary and general overseer of the work, Miss Laliah B. Pingree, but it is known that the aggregate expense per year must amount to many thousands of dollars - more, it is certain, than any other woman in Boston is spending in purely educational and philanthropic work. It is entirely a labor of love on the part of Mrs Shaw, and her sole reward is in seeing the beneficent result of her work.

Helpfulness to mothers and children is the keynote of this work, and this results in helpfulness to the home in general. Hundreds of the "little tots" in the tenement-house districts of the city have reason to rise up and call Mrs Shaw blessed.

When the writer of this article was on his way to the North Bennett-st day nursery he found himself completely "turned around" in the maze of short, narrow and winding streets to be found in "Little Italy" and he stepped into a shop to ask the proprietor to direct him to the day nursery.

"Don't know nothin' about no such place," said the shopkeeper who was intent on selling a yellow plush album with a gilt-edged mirror in the cover to a woman whose bare toes could be seen through the holes in her mud-covered shoes. Hitching her ragged shawl back to her shoulders by suddenly elevating both arms as if for flight on imaginary wings, the woman turned and said: "You mean the place where they keeps the little kids while their mothers is away at work?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well, it's right on this street at the corner of North Bennett, and a God-blessed place it is for the kids and their mothers. I don't know what a woman living in the tenements I lives in would do if they didn't take care of her two kids there at the day nursery while she hustles cleanin' car winders for a livin' for 'em. Her husband's down on the island."

"You think then that the day nursery is a good thing?"

"Fine, and the lady that keeps it up is a ministerin' angel and it's a pity there ain't more like her. They does the square thing by the younguns there at the day nursery."

A visit to any one of Mrs Shaw's philanthropic institutions would confirm this statement if faithful and loving and wise care constitutes the "square thing" in the care of childhood.

As early as 7 in the morning the babies begin to arrive at the day nurseries, borne in the arms of the mother, the father or older brothers and sisters. There are no caste lines and no red tape in the receiving of children. The color line is unknown and the kinky-haired infant African, the shining black-haired Italian, the little blonde Polander and the dusky-skinned Armenian lie down in peace together in the big, clean crib room of the day nursery. They play together in harmony in the large, sunny playroom, with its wealth of toys and its atmosphere of cleanliness and cheeriness. There may be a little passage at arms now and then, but a child's anger, like its grief, is not for long, and harmony is soon restored by the ever-watchful teacher or attendant.

There is a kindergarten for the older children, and work rooms, game rooms and schoolrooms for still larger children, for the work is not limited to children of nursery age. It extends to the mothers themselves, and there are mothers' clubs and mothers' meetings of various kinds.

There are in the tenement house districts many mothers as ignorant as their children of the real duties of a mother. They are helplessly inefficient, and any one but Mrs Shaw and equally broadminded women would regard them as hopelessly so. Some of them know so little regarding the proper use of the needle that they cannot sew on a button properly or do the simplest repairing of their children's garments as it should be done. Willing as they may be, they do not know how to give their children intelligent home care.

The very little children are kept at the day nurseries from the time they are brought to the institutions in the morning until their parents of older brothers and sisters come for them in the evening, when the day's work of the school closes. In the meantime the children are cared for in the kindest and most intelligent way. They are given a good, nourishing dinner at noon, and after that they go to the crib room for the mid-day nap it is well for children to have until they are 5 or 6 years old. All their imperative little wants are well attended to, and the mother goes to her work in the happy assurance that her children are as well cared for as they would be in their own home. Indeed, she knows that they are receiving better care that it would be possible for her to give them.

Now and then the father of a motherless child brings the little one to the nursery to be cared for while he is away at work, and it is six in the evening before he calls for the child to carry it back to his dark and silent home. a whole volume of sorrowfully true incidents could be written in a history of any of Mrs Shaw's day nurseries, and a cheerier volume of equally true incidents could also be written regarding them.

The opportunities of these "Neighborhood Houses" are unlimited and the scope of their work has so broadened that it includes almost everything helpful to home life. The older children and the mothers carry into their own homes the helpful influences of the Neighborhood houses.

In a single one of these institutions 120 girls between the ages of 10 and 20 years meet once each week in nine different clubs. Instruction and amusement are very happily combined at these meetings.

There are also eight clubs with an aggregate of more than 100 boys as members. Sloyd, basket-weaving, chair-caning, gymnastics, games reading and a good deal of general recreation take up the time of these clubs.

As many of 30 mothers meetings have been held in a single year in some of these neighborhood houses. There have been talks, music, readings and a great deal of sociability helped along by light refreshments.

The educational influence of true work is invaluable, while no one can estimate the extent of its moral influence. In all this great "City of Kind Hearts" there is no more sympathetic heart than of Mrs Shaw,and no work more helpful to humanity than hers.

Jamaica Plain Lights Up?

From the date and the content of this short entry, I think we can guess that this request is for the first electric poles in Jamaica Plain. If so, it's intersting that Green street was considered as important as Centre and South by the company. For many years it's been a residential side street, little different from any other, but in 1890 it was a major business hub for the district. Of course, there were gas lamps before electricity came, but the electric lights would have made the gas lamps seem dim in comparison.

In an earlier post, I showed that there was no electric wiring in JP four years earlier, in 1886.




Boston Daily Globe March 11, 1890


Jamaica Plain Electric Poles.


A petition signed by Treasurer Siaz of the Boston Electric Light Company for the privilege of locating poles as follows: Forty-four on Centre street, 21 on Green street and 14 on South street in Jamaica Plain, and one each of Kneeland and Federal streets of the city proper. Referred to the committee on electric wires.

Alien Enemies

This short article only mentions Jamaica Plain in passing, but I though it was worth posting. Two wars against Germany in forty years must have caused a good deal of stress for the German community of Jamaica Plain. The natural tendency of immigrants to support the homeland would have put them under suspicion of disloyalty in this country. Unfortunately, issues of the Jamaica Plain News of these years are not in the collection of the Boston Public Library, so I have no more information to add to this little entry. In the past, I've seen references to the Boston Public school system removing German from the curriculum during both years. My mother took German at Jamaica Plain high school in the early 1940s, but it was not available when I went to Boston schools in the 1960s-70s.


Boston Daily Globe February 5, 1918


Alien Enemies Slow Conforming To Law

Less Than 500 Registered With Police Yesterday

Federal Statute Requires Their Names Feb 4-9, Inclusive


Less than 500 alien enemies in Greater Boston had registered with the police up to an early hour last evening under the Federal law which requires that between Feb 4 and Feb 9, inclusive, they shall appear before police authorities in cities and before postmasters in towns of less than 5000 population, provided they are 14 years of age or more, and give information concerning themselves besides submitting to fingerprints and furnishing four unmounted photographs.

Throughout the State, the registration work was taken up without much ceremony, in practically every place one or more officers being assigned to the work of taking the names, while the inspectors attended to the fingerprints and photographs.

A namesake of Kaiser Wilhelm, whose name is Karl Richard Wilhelm Maser, an employe(sic) of the Forbes Lithograph Company, did everything in his power to prove that his heart and conscience are right by helping the Chelsea police, without compensation, in registering Germans who were unable to speak or write English.

At Joy-st Station, one of the registrants was Paul Pigoras, 17, who told Capt Richard Fitzgerald that he was unable to supply the photographs on account of lack of funds, due to the fact, he said, that although he left Germany before the declaration of war by the United States, he has been unable to obtain work through the prejudice in America against his country.

Pigoras said that his home has been in freight cars, in which he has moved around a considerable part of the country, starting out in New Orleans. He did not know where his next meal was coming from and did not seem to be worrying a great deal about it.

Only a small proportion of the men in Germantown, the extreme end of the West Roxbury district, and in the vicinity of Boylston Station, in Jamaica Plain, another big German settlement, had been heard from up to last night, but the police are confident that there will be a widespread response when the terms of the law are better known.

In Quincy, a man far advanced in years appeared early in the day and in conversation with the police officials expressed regrets that he had not long ago become a citizen of the United States, which, he said, had been good to him ever since he came here in his youth.

At every police station, where registrants appeared, the officers reported that there was no evidence of hostility upon the part of any of the men who appeared. The majority of them, it is said, were of more than average intelligence, and able to read and write and speak English fluently.

Jamaica Plain's Lost Revolutionary War Cemeteries

This excerpt immediately follows the previous one in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. It tells the story of the three estates that were used as hospitals during the Revolutionary War, and where soldiers were buried. It seems as if the Hallowell property was also used as a cemetery by local people.

This article by the late Walter Marx suggests that the caskets from all three sites were reburied at Walter street, where a small number of headstones can be seen at the edge of the Arboretum. It seems unlikely to me that they would have been able to find all the graves without markers, so I suspect, as I said in the previous entry, that some might have been left behind. That's pure speculation, of course, but not unreasonable.






"There are three other places within the limits of Jamaica Plain where burials have been made.

In the summer of 1775, one or more regiments were stationed on the Plain, and many of the soldiers quartered in different houses, upon the inhabitants. (See Dr. Gray's Half Century Sermon.)

Three estates in the place were confiscated, and the houses standing on the used as hospitals; viz., Commodore Loring's Governor Bernard's and Capt. Benjamin Hallowell's. The Commodore's house, built in 1760, on the corner made by the intersection of Austin [Centre] and South streets, after having weathered the storms of 95 years, is at this day, taken in connection with its surroundings, hardly exceeded by any modern built mansion in its neighborhood. About a quarter of a mile back of this then hospital, the soldiers who died within its walls were buried.

Col. Henly, who had some charge over Burgoyne's captive army while at Cambridge, is recollected to have occupied the Loring house at that time.

It came next into the possession of widow Ann (Hough) Doane, who, in 1784, married David Stoddard Greenough, Esq. Their son, and only child, Col. David Stoddard Greenough, Esq, owned it on the death of his father. Col. David Stoddard Greenough, of the third generation, now owns and occupies it; he also having a son David Stoddard.

It is credible to the Greenough family that, through their several ownerships and occupancies, no violation of the graves of the revolutionary soldiers, on their grounds, has yet been allowed. The number of burials made cannot now be ascertained, from the mounds having become levelled by the rains of so many years, and by the tread of cattle feeding over them. But from the number of rude stones, probably taken from walls or picked up in the fields, and set up as head and foot stones, they may be estimated at thirty - or more.

The following inscription, pretty well executed for the time, was taken from the only headstone showing the mark of the graver's tool;

"Here lies ye Body of serg't Danl Niles of Easton, who Died Novr, ye 2nd A.D. 1775. Aged 41 years."

The Governor Bernard estate was situated on the westerly side of Jamaica Pond, having thereon a considerable extent of shore and a liberal share of front on Pond street. After the removal of the soldiers from the premises, the first remembered occupant was Martin Brimmer, Esq., who, after a long residence, died there in 1804. Capt. John Prince bought the estate in 1806, and in 1809 took down and removed the old house, a part of which had stood 141 years; and in which no doubt many bumpers of good wine had been drunk to the health of the several sovereigns of Great Britain, who had flourished during that period.

Some few years before his decease, Capt. Prince procured a road to be laid out and made through the premises, from Pond street to Perkins street; after the accomplishment of which, he divided the whole into good sized building lots, on several of which beautiful houses have since been erected.

The burial ground on the Bernard estate was near a small fish pond, on elevated ground, at some distance back from the buildings. The spot was ploughed many years ago; and it is said some of the coffins were disturbed in the operation. No one in the neighborhood remembers to have seen the ground before the ploughing, and therefore no estimate can be made of the number buried.

The Hallowell house, built about 1738, stands on a corner made by the intersection of Austin [Centre] and Boylston streets. It has lately been purchased by Dr. B.F. Wing, who has thoroughly repaired it, and, by the addition of one or more wings, has given it something more of quaintness than it previously exhibited.

Capt. Hallowell married a Boylston, and in the right of his wife held the above property; but his sympathies happening to be with the Royalist party, he left Roxbury in some haste for Boston in 1775, and thence took passage from England, where he passed the remainder of his life. While the Hallowell house was used as a hospital, the burials from it were made near the road, about forty rods [220 yards] from the house, on the way to Boylston street depot.

An octogenarian pair noted for their accurate recollections, who were born and have always lived near the Hallowell house, think the first occupant of the place, after the term of its hospital-ity, was a Frenchman, whose name was Fefabre; and that it was he who, to the astonishment and universal indignation of the neighbors, ploughed over and obliterated all marks of the graves. They likewise say that people who had set up marks whereby to distinguish the graves of their friends of kinsmen, and came after to remove them, returned home disappointed and in sorrow.

About the year 1789, Dr. Leprilete bought the premises and kept possession till after the decease of Capt Hallowell, when a son of his assumed the name of his mother's family - Boylston. This son, Ward Nicholas Boylston, presuming, or being advised, that the confiscation could hold no longer than his father's lifetime, came over, and in the name and right of his mother, laid claim to, and by process of law obtained the property, about the year 1800. It now belongs to Mr. Thomas Boylston, by the will of his grandfather, the late Ward Nicholas Boylston, Esq. "

Necrology

This entry is taken from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, by Henry Fritz-Gilbert Waters. The Jamaica Plain Burial Ground is the one behind the Unitarian Universalist church at Centre and Eliot streets. I've walked around the graveyard, and some of the stones listed must have been lost over the years. Also, some of the extant stones are now difficult or impossible to read. Names like May, Weld and Seaverns are well known to us, but of course the names we know are far fewer than those remembered.

The last two names come from other sites. Of course, before the church was built in Jamaica Plain, residents would either be buried in Roxbury proper or simply be buried on their own property. Another entry will cover three known Revolutionary War burial sites in Jamaica Plain. Those buried on their own farms is another matter. When the land was sold, did they dig up the family? Or are there still bones lying about Jamaica Plain? Did house-builders ever dig up caskets while digging foundations? It seems likely that there must be at least a few forgotten souls in the ground somewhere in the district.

Note: some of the type in the original book couldn't be copied directly here. The combination AE is shown here as separate letters. In one case, November is abbreviated Nov with a superscript r at the end. All can be seen in the online copy of the original linked above.



Inscriptions From The Jamaica Plain Burial Ground In West Roxbury, Mass, Being The Whole Number Therein Contained.

[Copied by Luther M. Harris, M.D.]


Samuel Keyes died Oct. 26, 1785, aged 9 weeks.

In memory of Mary Woods, Daught. of Mr George Woods & Wife, who died Apl. 17, 1795; aged 5 years and 6 months.

In memory of Mr. Sylvanus Woods, youngest son of Mr. George & Mrs. Dolly Woods, who died March 25, 1808; aged 17.

In Memory of Mr. George Woods, obt Octr 15, 1815, Aged 73 years.

George, son of Mr. Richard and Mrs. Mary Lethbridge, died Sept.21, 1818, aged 5 mo. 14 da.

In Memory of Mrs. Mary Lethbridge, wife of Mr. Richard Lethbridge, Who died Dec. 27, 1818, AEt. 32.

In Memory of Mrs. Martha Ellis, Wife of Mr. Amasa Ellis; Who Died Nov. 26, 1812.

Erected in Memory of Mrs. Mary Harris, Wife of Mr. John Harris, who died May 7, 1814, in the 57th year of her age.

In Memory ofo Mr. Robert Harris, who died April 8, 1826, AEt. 40.

In memory of William Henry Cobleigh, who died Aug. 21, 1836, aged 17 years and 10 mos.

In memory of Capt. Lemuel May, died Novr 19, 1805, AE. 67.

In memory of Miss Rebecca Goddard, Daughter of Mr. Samuel & Mrs. Joanna Goddard, who died March 26, 1798, in the 12th year of her age.

Erected to the memory of Mr. Lyman Springer, Who died Nov. 25th 1839, aged 32 years & 11 months.

In memory of Mrs. Roxina Lawrence, wife of Mr. Reuben Lawrence, who died Dec. 3, 1842, aged 36 years. Also Hannah S., daughter of Reuben and Rosina Lawrence, who died Mar. 7, 1841, aged 8 years.

In Memory of Mr. David White, who died April 28, 1816, aged 70 years.

Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Margaret White, who died July 18, 1841, aged 92.

Sacred to the Memory of Capt. Isaac Sturtevant of Roxbury, who died July 10, 1806, AE 66.

In memory of Mrs Rebecca Sturtevant, who died June 7, 1827, aged 69.

Sacred to the memory of Betsey S. Gregory, who died Jan. 4, 1834, aged 17 years.

Sacred to the memory of Sila Pierce, who died Oct. 13, 1837, aged 30.

Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Esther Weld, wife of Mr. Thomas Weld, who died July 1, 1811, aged 56 - and Mr. Thomas Weld, wo died May 12, 1821, aged 70.

In Memory of Mr. Samuel White, who died Sept. 8, 1793, AEtatis 52.

In memory of Thomas W. Seaverns, son of Josiah & Rebecca Seaverns, who died January 29, 1802, aged 4 months.

In memory of Mrs. Anna Winchester, wife of Mr. Gulliver Winchester, who died April 18, 1797, AEtatis 60.

Erected in Memory of Mr. Gulliver Winchester, who died Novr. 12, 1811, AEt. 79.

In Memory of Mr. Henry Winchester, who died June 12, 1801, AEtatis 40.

In memory of Mrs. Elizabeth, wife of Mr. William Holmes, who died Jan. 6, 1835, aged 50 years.

In Memory of Mr. Charles Stimpson, died Aug. 15, 1800, aged 27 years.

In Memory of Capt. John Gould, died Jan. 10, 1814, aged 41.

In Memory of Mr. Royal Gould, died July 13, 1822, aged 35.

Sacred to the memory of Mr. Lemuel Harring, Obit June 20, 1815, AE. 20.

John Payson died Jan. 14, 1819, aged 6 years.

[On a tasteful marble monument.] Passed into the Superiour State, June 9, 1832, Frederick Chandler, AEt. 40 years. Elizabeth N. Angus, Jan. 6, 1847, AEt. 53

In memory of Frederick, son of Frederick & Elizabeth Chandler, who died Dec. 14, 1830, aged 13 years.

In Memory of Mr. William Shepherd, who died Augt. 28, 1801, AEt. 38.

In Memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Child, wife of Mr. Phineas Child, who died Sept. 28, 1800, AE. 49.

Sacred to the memory of Abigail Child, dau. of Mr. Phineas and Mrs. Elizabeth Child, who died May 10, 1795, aged 6 years.

In memory of Mr Phineas Child, who died March 17, 1806, AE. 60.

In memory of Maria Vietch Cranch, AE. 22, died May 29, 1810, of a lingering and painful disease, which she bore with almost unexampled patience.

In Memory of Andrew Riddle, who died Dec. 14, 1830, aged 58 years.

In Memory of Jane Riddle, wife of Andrew Riddle, who died Sept. 18, 1890, aged 56.

In memory of John Riddle, who died July 24, 1836, aged 29 years.

Mrs. Margaret Smith died Sept. 25, 1812, aged 47.

Henry J., son of Morris and Esther Millet, died Aug. 24, 1836, AEt. 2 years.

In memory of Mrs. Zibiah Randall, wife of Mr. Abraham Randall, died Mar. 18, 1833, aged 78 years.

In memory of Mr. Abraham Randall, died Oct. 7, 1793, aged 14 months.

Mary Jemerson, died Aug. 31, 1839, aged 62 years - Louisa Jemerson died Oct. 15, 1844, aged 38 years. Wife and daughter of William Jemerson.

[A monument - on one side of the shaft is inscribed - ] A.P.H. died Apr. 3, 1836, aged 3 years and 9 months - J.W.H. died July 7, 1842, aged 2 years, children of Mr. Abraham and Mrs. Emily Hodgdon. [On another side] Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Emily Hodgdon, wife of Mr. Abraham Hodgdon, who died July 1, 1843, aged 41 years.

Sacred to the memory of John Fessenden, Esq., who died Nov 16, 1845, aged 75 years.

[Two monuments within an enclosure. On the shaft of one is inscribed - ] Mary Ashton died Dec. 15, 1840. [On the other - ] Sarah E.H. Ashton, wife of Benjamin Callender, died Feb. 3, 1848, aged 31 years.

[On a marble slab within an inclosure is inscribed] -

Williams.

Those flowerets fair, so lately given,
Have joined their parent Rose - in Heaven.

Ellen, aged 30.
J.W., 14 m.
J.S.W., 3 m.


[The two next inscriptions were copied from head stones standing in open fields.]

"In memory of Miss Sarah Druse, who died Dec. 23, 1792, aged 42 years."

[She was the housekeeper and intended wife of the late Dea. Nathl. Weld. She died of natural small-pox. The Deacon had her buried on his own ground, about 30 rods from his house.]

[On a marble slab standing in a field on the Boylston estate, about 20 rods from Boylston street.]

"In memoria Doctoris Ludovici Leprilete, Mass. Med. Soc., Locii, Nati Nante in Gallia, Oct. 10, Anno Domin MDCCL. Obiit carcinomate in glandula prostata, Julii die 29, MDCCCIV. AEtat suae LIV.
Celeberrimus in Chirurgia.
Hic Etiam, ejus filius solus Ludovicus Leprilete sepultus est, natus Jan. 12, Anno Domini MDCCLXXXV. Obiit Oct 30, MDCCXCII. AEtat suae octavo anno."