Standing on Framingham Centre Common facing north east, it is hard to miss the stately white colonial with a semi-circular porch located just south of the Plymouth Church. Upon closer inspection one will notice the plaque which reads “The Otis Boynton House, c1825. “ Now one wonders, who was Otis Boynton?
Otis Boynton (1798-1882) was a bookbinder who settled in Framingham in May of 1822. Otis and his wife Sarah bought a one acre house lot adjacent to Framingham Centre Common from Thomas Buckminster on March 12, 1825 on which they built their home.
Otis Boynton House. Photograph by D. Buckley
In 1826, the bookbindery business must not have been doing very well, so Otis and Sarah mortgaged their house and land to Nathan Stone for six hundred dollars. According to the agreement, if the Boyntons repaid the six hundred dollars in full within one year, the house and land would revert back to them. Evidently this mortgage was paid off as the family continued to live in the house until 1876.
John J. Marshall (1800- ??) joined Otis’ bookbindery business in 1833. The business was expanded to include a book and stationary shop in addition to the bindery. The American Antiquarian Society has in its collection a Boynton and Marshall Bookbindery’s account book for the period between May 13, 1850 and June 23, 1852. According to this record, the company sold school books to several towns including Framingham. They also sold novels, religious works, dictionaries, almanacs, paper, pencils and pens, ink, drawing and writing books, envelopes, greeting cards, and sealing wax. The bookbindery bound books for printers and publishers. Notable among these was the job of binding thousands of copies of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for the John P. Jewett Company in 1852. The Boynton and Marshall partnership lasted until February of 1864 when the bookbindery was sold to Moses Mellen of Boston.
Otis and Sarah had six children, five boys and one girl. The oldest son, William Courtland (1824-1825) died in infancy. Their daughter Sarah Elizabeth (1827-1844) died of consumption at age 17 years. Otis Howard (1832-1872) never married. Courtland (1834- ??) and his wife Mary E. (1836-1898) had two children who died in infancy. Timothy Spaulding (1840-1863) died at age 23 years in Newbern, North Carolina. Timothy was a member of Company C, 44th regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteers in the Civil War. It is through their third child, William Henry (1829-1905) and his wife Margaret Anna Church Boynton (1839-1927) that the Boynton name has lived on. The couple had at least one child survive to adulthood, a son, Dr. Richard Wilson Boynton who married and had a family.
Otis Boynton died on January 18, 1882 at the age of 84 years. He was laid to rest in Edgell Grove Cemetery alongside his wife, Sarah.
Facts
Otis Boynton (1798-1882) was born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts to William and Eunice (Atherton) Boynton on May 18, 1798.
Otis married Sarah Wilson (1799-1859) of Lancaster, Massachusetts on August 29, 1822.
At the time of his death, Otis owned 7 parcels of land in Framingham Centre purchased from Thomas Buckminster, Benjamin Wheeler, Moses Edgell, and others. The land was bordered by the Centre Common, Sudbury River and Auburn Street.
William Henry Boynton, Otis’ son, was an artist with no business sense. He was friends with Nathan Dole, of Dole Pineapple fame, and Mr. Watson, partner to Alexander Graham Bell. Dole wanted William to invest in his pineapple plantations in Hawaii, but William refused, not seeing any value in investing in a strange fruit grown half a world away. Watson wanted him to invest in the telephone, but he saw no future for this invention! Instead, after the Civil War, he invested in cotton, and subsequently lost the house on Framingham Centre Common.
Southworth, Margaret Boynton. “The Story of the Otis Boynton House.” Paper given at the meeting of the Framingham Historical and Natural History Society, Jan. 20, 1974.
Temple, Josiah H. History of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1640-1885. New England History Press, 1988.
Patrolman William H. Welch (1870-1923) was the only Framingham Police Officer ever murdered in the line of duty. His story began and ended in Saxonville. His parents were Irish immigrants who settled in the Saxonville section of Framingham in the 1800s. William was the oldest of Michael and Bridget (Corcoran) Welch’s three children.
Patrolman William H. Welch. Courtesy of the Framingham Police Dept. From the FHC collection. 2001.351
Bill, as he was known, was appointed to the Framingham Police Department on March 23, 1908. He held this position for the next fifteen years. As was the custom of the day, Bill lived in the area he patrolled, Saxonville. He worked twelve hour shifts, seven days a week with only two weeks off a year for vacation. Bill was an old fashion, hard-nosed, strict cop who would administered corporal punishment to misbehaving youth when necessary. He made a point of knowing everyone who lived in his beat. Bill kept close watch for any suspicious characters among the many outsiders who came to Saxonville on the trolley to work in the mills, one of the town’s largest employers.
On October 11, 1916, Bill married Jennie Neylon. The couple made their home at 60 Elm Street where they raised their three children, William, Jr., Charles, and Agnes.
February 2, 1923 started out as just another day in his life. It was Friday, which was payday for the mill workers who gathered for their weekly card game at the Mill Boarding House. Bill was extra vigilant because the card game‘s pot had grown quite large. It began to rain around 11:00 p.m., so Bill stopped by his home to grab a rain coat. Around 3:30 a.m., February 3, while patrolling McGrath Square, Bill noticed a stranger acting suspiciously. He brought the subject to the Roxbury House, a company owned boarding house for male workers. At the boarding house Bill telephoned Police Headquarters for assistance. Suddenly the suspect tried to escape. The two scuffled. The suspect pulled out a concealed revolver and shot Officer Welch three times at point blank range, killing him. John McGrath, a night fireman in the Roxbury House, saw the scuffle. He went to the door to call the night watchman at the Roxbury Carpet Company who was approximately 100 yards away when he heard the gunshots and saw the suspect escape and flee up Elm Street. The residents of the Roxbury House had also heard the gunshots and rushed to the scene. Within the hour, the Framingham Police with the help of the State Police began their investigation. The residents of the Roxbury House described the assailant as a white male, approximately 25 years old, 5’ 6” tall, clean shaven, wearing a dark suit. Area police departments were alerted to be on the lookout for a man who fit this description. Because the night’s rain and sleet made the roads icy and dangerous, the police effort to find and follow the suspect’s footsteps was unsuccessful.
Roxbury House, located at the corner of Concord and Danforth Streets. Courtesy of Susan Silva.
Patrolman Welch’s funeral Mass was celebrated on February 6, 1923 at St. George’s Church in Saxonville. Following the requiem Mass, his body was placed in a tomb in Edgell Grove Cemetery. Eventually, his remains were buried on the top of the hill in St. George’s Cemetery.
While sitting on a bench alongside the Charles River basin in Cambridge in late April 1923, Salvatore Letteri was arrested and charged with Welch’s murder. He went on trial in the Superior Criminal Court, East Cambridge in October of that same year. The prosecution’s case was weak, consisting of mainly circumstantial evidence. To make matters worse for the prosecution, the murder weapon had not been found. After two hours of deliberation, the jury found the defendant not guilty. Letteri was released, but did not stay free for long. On December 19, 1924, Letteri was sentenced to 7 to 10 years in prison for shooting another man during a robbery. While on his death bed in prison, Letteri confessed to the murder of Patrolman Welch.
The Framingham Police Department has never forgotten Patrolman Welch. They honored his service and ultimate sacrifice by naming their Medal of Honor after him, The William H. Welch Medal of Honor. This medal is awarded to an officer who has performed acts of extraordinary heroism, involving imminent and extreme personal risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty. In the mid-1990s, the Police station on Union Avenue was renovated. Ordway Street, which runs alongside the building was renamed William H. Welch Way.
Patrolman Welch’s gravestone, St. George’s Cemetery. Photographs by D. Buckley.
Facts
Born: December 30, 1870
Framingham Police Department was founded in 1871. There was no formal police training and officers supplied their own equipment and uniforms. There was no roll call or backup for the officers.
Wife: Jennie Neylon Welch, 1887-1951(2)
Children: Pfc William H., 1919-1944, died in the battle of Anzio during WWII and is buried in Military Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy; Charles J., 1921-1959; Agnes, 1917-2000, married Waldo Anderson, raised two sons in Framingham, and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Wayland.
Bibliography
“EMPTY SHELLS AT SCENE OF MURDER.” Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927), 04 Oct 1923, p. 17. ProQuest. ; Accessed 05 Sept. 2018.
“FIND NO CLEW TO POLICEMAN’S SLAYER.” Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927), 04 Feb 1923, p. 1. ProQuest. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/hnpnewyorkbostonglobe/docview/497187589/52241E00B4344810PQ/1?accountid=9675 Accessed 5 Sep. 2018.
“FINDS LETTERI IS NOT GUILTY.” Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927), 12 Oct. 1923, p. 1. ProQuest. ; Accessed 05 Sept. 2018
Framingham Police Dept. Framingham Police Department, 1871-1994: Commemorative History Book. Taylor Pub., 1994.
Herring, Stephen. Framingham: An American Town. Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.
“Jennie Neylon Welch, Memorial Page.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/184226792/jennie-welch/photo Accessed 05 2018.
“LAUGHTER CAUSED BY “MAN FROM AUBURN”.” Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927), 11 Oct 1923, p. 4. ProQuest. ; Accessed 05 Sept. 2018.
“Patrolman William H. Welch.” Officer Down Memorial Page. https://www.odmp.org/officer/13968-patrolman-william-h-welch Accessed 05 Sept. 2018.
“STILL SEEK SLAYER OF OFFICER WELSH.” Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927), 06 Feb 1923, p. 3. ProQuest. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/hnpnewyorkbostonglobe/docview/497135758/fulltextPDF/2168128A71D74553PQ/1?accountid=9675 Accessed 5 Sep. 2018.
Miriam Van Waters (1887-1974) was a noted progressive American social worker, penal reformer, and prison director. She grew up in Portland Oregon, the eldest daughter of a liberal Episcopal minister. Van Waters graduated from the University of Oregon in 1910 with an M.A. in psychology. She then went on to earn a Ph.D. in anthropology from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. During the summer of 1912, she worked on a project where she collected and studies data on delinquent girls at the Portland Municipal Court in Oregon. This experience not only helped Miriam prepare her doctoral thesis, but became an inspiration for her life’s work.
Upon graduation from Clark in the spring of 1913, Miriam was hired as a special agent for the Boston Children’s Aid Society. She was in charge of young girls brought before Judge Harvey H. Baker, 1st Judge of the Boston Juvenile Court. While attending hearings, she saw that Judge Baker made every effort to save children and keep them out of jail. This approach deeply touched, and influenced Miriam. In April of 1914, she accepted the job of Superintendent of the Frazier Detention Home in Portland, Oregon. Miriam found the conditions at Frazier deplorable. She immediately began to make the following improvements: (1) she segregated the sick children from the healthy ones; (2) hospitalized the seriously ill; (3) cleaned the facility; (4) established a library; (5) hired a visiting doctor, resident nurse, recreation director, and a dietitian. Miriam gradually eliminated corporal punishment, and organized work, play, and schooling for every child. All the children were tested. Those who required specialized care were transferred to appropriate institutions. These reforms favoring education and rehabilitation over punishment were to be the hallmark of her approach to prison management.
Miriam Van Waters, FHC Collections.
In the winter of 1915, Miriam was diagnosed with tuberculosis. This forced her to give up social work while she recuperated. In 1917, her health was sufficiently restored, she move to California where she accepted the position of superintendent of Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles. Miriam found Juvenile Hall to be grossly mismanaged. Within four months, she replaced the majority of the staff, hired a resident nurse, and established a dental clinic and a psychological lab. In 1919, she founded El Retiro, a new residential high school for delinquent girls aged fourteen to nineteen years. Miriam envisioned her school with a homelike, nourishing atmosphere; a positive place for growth, where girls could be successfully returned to society.
Throughout her career, Miriam had the financial and political support of many wealthy, influential people including Eleanor Roosevelt, a first lady, Felix Frankfurter, a Harvard Law professor, Ethel Sturges Dummer, a Chicago philanthropist, and Geraldine Morgan Thompson, a feminist social reform pioneer from New Jersey among others. Geraldine and Miriam maintained a close personal relationship for forty years.
In the early 1920s, Miriam obtained a grant from Ethel Sturges Dummer to conduct a survey of industrial training schools and reformatories for girls across the United States. This study, published in 1922, included programs that Miriam felt would point a young girl in the right direction as well as her observations of the institutional facilities she visited. While in Los Angeles, Miriam also wrote two books on juvenile delinquency: Youth in Conflict (1925) and Parents on Probation (1928). In 1926, Miriam was drawn into national service. While maintaining her positions in Los Angeles, she was appointed to manage the juvenile delinquency segment of the Harvard Law School Crime Survey. This survey sought to discover the causes of crime and the best ways to prevent it. She also began working as a consultant on juvenile delinquency for the Wickersham Commission established by President Herbert Hoover from 1928-1931.
In the early 1930s, Miriam’s reputation was growing nationally, while in Los Angeles it was declining. Many there thought her methods too liberal. She left El Retiro in 1927 and resigned from the Los Angeles Juvenile Court on November 11, 1930. The next year, she relocated permanently to the East coast. In 1932, she accepted the job as superintendent of the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women at Framingham. A position she would hold for the next twenty-five years.
Massachusetts Reformatory for Women (MCI Framingham) – FHC Collections
At Framingham, Van Waters continued to build on the progressive agenda of Jessie Donaldson Hodder, the previous superintendent. Miriam’s goal was to make each student, as she called those sentenced to Framingham, feel as if the entire staff worked on their behalf to better them and to prepare them for their eventual release back into society. She immediately began changing the environment of the Reformatory. Within a year, she replaced the bars on the windows with curtains, and instituted a cottage system of housing for select groups of women. The Hodder Hall, for girls age seventeen to twenty-one years, was an effort to keep them away from the more hardened and older women. The Wilson Cottage was for mothers and babies. Here, the women learned to care for their babies with the help of nurses, doctors, and psychiatrists. Each new baby born to one of Miriam’s students received an engraved silver cup from “Aunt Miriam.”
Miriam encouraged members of the community to volunteer at the prison, including local students, college professors, clergy, and a variety women’s groups. Many of these volunteers taught classes on current events, psychology and the arts. She also brought in counselors and therapists. Miriam went on to form many clubs at the reformatory, sixteen of them at one point. The purpose of the clubs was to offer more constructive outlets for her students. She also, expanded the opportunities for students to learn job skills by working outside the Reformatory. These included not only domestic work, kitchen helpers, and hospital maids, but also jobs at some local businesses and industries as well.
Following the end of World War II, the political winds changed. The liberalism of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal was replaced with conservatism. Liberals such as Van Waters came under close scrutiny. In 1948, the new Commissioner of Corrections, Elliot McDowell and his deputy, Frank Dwyer, launched an investigation into reports of homosexuality at Framingham Reformatory for Women following the suicide of a student. McDowell also challenged her expanded indenture program and excursions outside the Reformatory by inmates to medical appointments and movies. In January 1949, McDowell fired Van Waters.
Van Waters appealed her firing. Her appeal hearing began on January 13, 1949 with McDowell presiding. After eighteen days of examination and cross-examination, McDowell stayed with his original decision to fire her. Van Waters appealed to Governor Paul Dever for a re-hearing which he granted. The re-hearing began on March 4 and ended on March 11 with a reversal of McDowell’s decision. Van Waters was reinstated as Superintendent. However, for the rest of her career, her reforms were closely monitored by the state, and most did not survive for future generations of inmates sent to the Framingham Reformatory.
Miriam Van Waters retired in 1957 after a period of declining health. She moved into a home in Framingham with two former inmates. Through correspondence and letters to editors, she continued to support prison reform and social justice issues. Van Waters died of a stroke at her home in 1974. She was buried in Sherborn at the Pine Hill Cemetery overlooking the Framingham Reformatory for Women.
Miriam Van Waters never married. She did however adopt Betty Jean Martin, a seven year old girl, in 1932. Van Waters renamed the girl Sarah Ann Van Waters. Sarah Ann was educated at the Putney School in Vermont, 1936-1939, Swarthmore, 1939-1941, University of New Hampshire, 1941-1943. While at New Hampshire, she met and fell in love with Richard Hildebrandt. The couple soon married, settled in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and had three sons. After several years, they divorced and Sarah eventually moved to Framingham to live with her mother. On February 6, 1953, Sarah died following a car accident on an icy road. She was only 30 years old. Sarah Ann is buried in the Pine Hill Cemetery near her mother.
Facts
Mother: Maude Ophelia Vosburg Van Waters, 1866-1948
Siblings: Rachel Van Waters, 1885-1887; Ruth Van Waters Burton, 1893-1967; George Vosburg Van Waters, 1899-1981; Ralph Orin Van Waters, 1904-1989
Children: Sarah Ann Van Waters Hildebrandt, December. 22,1922-February 6,1953, adopted
Clubs formed by Van Waters at the Framingham Reformatory: Harmony News: in-house newspaper Two-Side Club: to teach the democratic process of government Merry Makers: all black group for music and drama Social Club: games and cards Dorothy Dix Club: to study the democratic process Audubon Club: conservation of natural resources Camp Fire Girls A.A. Sports Club: sponsored softball, archery and basketball teams Glee Club: musical performances Birthday Club: met monthly at the Superintendent’s home to celebrate student birthdays Drama Club: staged plays Maud Ophelia Club: for the elderly students Rangers Club: nature club Parole Club: to prepare women for life on the outside Poetry Club: to read and write poetry Tumblers Club
Bibliography
Bosworth, Mary, ed. Encyclopedia of Prisons and Correctional Facilities. Sage Publications, 2005.
“Celebrating the Quasquicentennial of Miriam Van Waters (October 4, 1887-January 17, 1974).” Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University. Posted October 4, 2012. https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/blog/celebrating-quasquicentennial-miriam-van-waters-october-4-1887january-17 Accessed 22 Jan. 2019.
Freedman, Estelle B. “Miriam Van Waters.” Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America, edited by Marc Stein, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004. Biography In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K3403600520/BICu=fpl&sid=BIC&xid=50576d17. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.
Freedman, Estelle B. “ Separatism Revisited: Women’s Institutions, Social Reform, and the Career of Miriam Van Waters.” Kerber, Linda K., ed. U. S. History as Women’s History: New Feminist Essays. University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
“Miriam Van Waters.” Find A Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145138388/miriam-van_waters Accessed 27 Jan. 2018.
“Motor Crash Kills Adopted Daughter of Dr. Van Waters.” Daily Boston Globe (1928-1960), Feb 07, 1953, pp. 21. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/docview/839982423?accountid=9675. Accessed 27 Jan. 2019.
Rowles, Burton J. The Lady at Box 99, the Story of Miriam Van Waters. Seabury Press, 1962.
Photo of Miriam Van Waters. Framingham History Center Collections.
The Reverend Charles Train (1783-1849) was the minister of the First Baptist Church of Framingham for twenty-nine years. He was born in Weston, Massachusetts to Deacon Samuel Train and Deborah (Savage) Train on January 7, 1783. Charles was educated in the local Weston Schools until the age of seventeen.He then attended the Framingham Academy for one term in preparation for college. During the summer of 1800, he completed his college course preparation under the tutelage of the Reverend Samuel Kendall, D. D.
Charles entered Harvard College in the fall of 1801. He was a gifted speaker and had excellent reasoning skills which he knew would serve him well in his chosen career, law.
Rev. Charles Train. Framingham History Center Collection. 2001.397
Financing his education proved to be difficult. His father was a farmer of modest means who relied upon Charles to help out on the farm. Thus, the family was not able to offer much financial assistance to Charles. To raise money to pay for his college tuition, Charles taught school during the winter months, and he occasionally worked in the Probate Office.
Charles desire to enter the legal profession began to waiver in 1803, when he experienced a call to religious life. During his last two years at Harvard, Charles wrestled with the decision to answer this call. He finally came to accept it and began preparations for life as a Baptist minister. In May of 1806, he preached his first sermon at the Baptist Church in Newton. After which he received a letter of license to preach the Gospel from the Newton church. For the next seven months, Charles continued his religious studies with the Reverend Joseph Grafton while working as a substitute preacher in the area Baptist churches. To earn extra money, he continued to teach school during the winters of 1805 and 1806. Eventually Charles left the Newton congregation and returned home to preach to the Baptists in Weston.
In the fall of 1807, Charles was offered the directorship of the Framingham Academy. He accepted the position which he held until 1809. The Academy thrived under his leadership.
While director of the Framingham Academy, Lieutenant Jonathan Maynard nominated Charles for membership in Middlesex Lodge of Freemasons. On January 31, 1809, Charles was accepted and became an active member of the society. He was appointed the first chaplain of the Lodge, a position he held until 1826. He also served two years (1817, 1818) as the Worshipful Master of the Lodge. Being an excellent public speaker, Charles was frequently asked to address many Masonic gatherings.
During this time, he was also preaching in Framingham and Weston on alternate Sundays. Charles worked hard to strengthen and grow these two small congregations. The Framingham church consisted of only twenty families who worshipped in a dilapidated old meeting house in Park’s Corner. On January 30, 1811, he was ordained in Framingham at the request of the two congregations. In July of that same year, the two churches united and became known as the Baptist Church in Weston and Framingham. By 1826, under Charles’ leadership, the Framingham branch grew to about one hundred members, while the Weston branch had forty. At this time, the two congregations went their separate ways. Charles remained in Framingham to minister, a position he held until 1839.
The need for a new church building was great, given the tremendous increase in the size of the congregation and the physical condition of the meeting house. Land was purchased in Framingham Centre from Captain Peter Johnson and William Buckminster. Plans for the building were drawn up by Solomon Willard, a Boston architect. On November 17, 1825, the cornerstone for the new meeting house was laid with Masonic honors by the Freemasons of the Middlesex Lodge. In January 1827, the congregation moved from the old meeting house in Park’s Corner to their new building. Today, the First Baptist Church is the oldest public building in Framingham.
First Baptist Church, Framingham Centre. FHC Collection. 2003.20
The Reverend Train was a well respected member of the Framingham community. In addition to his pastoral duties, he was active in state and local affairs. Charles was very interested in education. For many years, he served as a member of the Framingham School Committee and was a trustees of the Framingham Academy. After he resigned the directorship of the Academy in 1809, he continued to offer college preparatory courses to students at his home. Charles also served in the State Legislature. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1822 and served for six of the next seven years. Charles lost his House of Representative re-election bid in 1827 after preaching a few very uncompromising sermons on the subject of Temperance which did not set well with the electorate! In the winter of 1829, he was asked to fill a vacancy in the Senate, and was subsequently elected to the position the following year. While serving in the legislature, he championed the formation of a Legislative Library, the revision of the laws regarding the Common Schools, and was involved in obtaining the charter for Amherst College.
Charles married Elizabeth Harrington of Weston on August 15, 1810. Together they had one son, Arthur Savage Train who followed in his father’s footsteps, and became a minister. Elizabeth died on September 14, 1814 at the age of thirty. In 1814 or 1815, Charles built a home in Park’s Corner, where he farmed about thirty acres of land. A year after Elizabeth’s death, Charles married her younger sister Hepzibah. She bore him four children: Charles R. (1817-1885) became a lawyer and practiced in Framingham, served in the State Legislature, was District Attorney for Middlesex County, a Member of Congress, and the Attorney General of the Commonwealth; Althea (1821-1845); Lucilla (1823-1841); and Sarah E. (1834-?) who moved to Bangor, Maine with her second husband.
In August 1833, Charles suffered an attack of strangury, an extremely painful condition. He suffered from this disease for the rest of his life. During the years of 1839 to 1845, he continued to preach and minister as his health allowed. By 1843, his disease had progressed to the point that he was forced to give up work completely. He died on September 17, 1849. Reverend Train was buried in Edgell Grove Cemetery in Framingham Centre.
Facts
Park’s Corner is located on the southwest side of Framingham
Strangury: a slow and painful discharge of urine drop by drop produced by spasmodic muscular contraction of the urethra and bladder. (dictionary.com)
Solomon Willard also designed the Bunker Hill Monument, and with Dexter Hemenway, The Village Hall (Framingham’s second town hall building)
Bibliography
Coolidge, Charles W. “Reverend Charles Train, citizen and Freemason, Minister of First Baptist Church of Framingham, 1811-1839.” Paper presented at the Seventy Fifth Anniversary (of the dedication of the First Baptist Church) May 3,1901 (Found in the files of the Framingham History Center).
Herring, Stephen W. Framingham, An American Town. The Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.
“History of the First Baptist Church.” The First Baptist Church in Framingham. http://www.firstbaptistframingham.org/firstbaptist_history.htm Accessed 04 Apr. 2019.
“Middlesex Lodge: Past Masters.” Masonic Genealogy. http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=Middlesex Accessed 03 Mar. 2019.
Temple, Josiah H. History of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1640-1885. New England History Press, 1988.
The Rev. Increase Niles Tarbox (1815-1888) was a 19th century American theologian and author. He was the youngest child of Thomas and Lucy (Porter) Tarbox of East Windsor, Connecticut. Throughout childhood, tragedy was his constant companion. Raised by his older sister after his mother’s death in 1816, he was orphaned at the age of nine with his father’s passing. At this time, he was sent to live with an uncle in Vernon, Connecticut. At age fourteen tragedy stuck once again with his uncle’s death. Tarbox returned to East Windsor to live and work on a farm owned by Mr. John Bissell. He stayed with the Bissells until he turned eighteen and left to teach school in North Coventry Connecticut.
Rev. Increase Niles Tarbox. Photograph by A.C. Brownell. From the Framingham History Center collection 2001.355
Tarbox left North Coventry in the spring of 1834 to attend the Academy of East Hartford in preparation for entrance to Yale College. He completed his studies at Yale in 1839 and then returned to the Academy of East Hartford where he taught until 1842. The faculty at Yale had great confidence in his superior academic achievement and elected him as tutor. He stayed on as tutor at Yale for two years while working on his Doctor of Divinity Degree.
In 1844, at age twenty-nine, Tarbox became the pastor at the Plymouth Congregational Church (previously known as the Hollis Evangelical Church) in Framingham, Massachusetts. Tarbox held this position for seven years and made quite a name for himself in the community.
With his even, friendly temperament, common sense, and pleasant manner he was embraced not only by his own congregation, but also by the greater Framingham community. He served on the Framingham School Committee. He was selected by the townsmen to chair the committee to build two high schools, one in the Centre Village and one in Saxonville. He was also a trustee for the Academy and for the Public Library. In 1848, Tarbox was chosen to deliver the address at the consecration of the Edgell Grove Cemetery. Despite theological differences, he aided the parishioners of the Unitarian Church when they were without a pastor. The ladies of the First Parish were so grateful for his assistance that they presented him with an inscribed silver pitcher in January 1848.
4 Warren Place, Framingham. Photo from the Redfin listing for home.
During his tenure in Framingham, he married Delia A. (Adelia Augusta) Waters of Millbury, Massachusetts. They made their home at 4 Warren Place in Framingham Centre where they raised their family. Of their four children, only two survived to adulthood.
Throughout his life, Tarbox was a writer. While at Yale, he contributed poems and articles to the Yale Literary Magazine and the New Englander. In 1849, Tarbox accepted the position of editor (one of three) for The Congregationalist, a new religious publication which supported the philosophy of Jonathan Edwards. He held this position for two years before moving on to head the American Education Society (later the American and College Education Society). The Society aided poor, young men who wanted to become ministers. At this time, he resigned as pastor of the Plymouth Church and as editor to The Congregationalist. The Tarbox family then moved from Framingham to West Newton to be closer to his new office. He held this position for thirty-three years. After his retirement from the Society, he went on to write for the New England Historic Genealogical Society. In 1881, he became the historiographer for the Society, a position he held until his death in 1888.
Tarbox also penned books for children. Many were published anonymously. His titles included The Story of Our Darling Nellie (1858, a fictionalized account of the short life of his daughter, Helen), the three volume Winne and Walter (1860), When I was a Boy: A Story of Real Life (1862), and the four-volume Uncle George Stories (1868).
The Rev. Tarbox died at his home in West Newton on May 3, 1888 after wintering in Kittrell, North Carolina where he came down with pneumonia. After a funeral service in West Newton, he was laid to rest on May 7, 1888 in the Edgell Grove Cemetery beside his wife, Delia, and two of their children.
Facts
Feb. 11, 1815- May 3, 1888
Children: Charles Porter, 1846-1849 (died in childhood); Susan Waters, 1849-1872; Mary Porter, 1851-1876; Helen Jane, 1854-1858 (died in childhood)
Siblings: Lydia Harriet Tarbox Brown, 1810 or 12-1864; Lucy W. Tarbox Haines, 1810 or 11-1888; Thomas B. Tarbox, 1806 -1816 (died at age 10 years); Benjamin P. Tarbox, 1804-1863; Octavia Tarbox, 1801-1804 (died in childhood)
Degrees: A.M. (Master of Arts) from Yale 1842; D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) 1844; S.T. D. (Doctor of Sacred Theology) from Yale 1869; S.T. D. from Iowa College 1869
Further Reading
“Online books by Increase N. Tarbox.” Online Books Page. Ockerbloom, John Mark, editor. c1999-2018. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=TarboxIncreaseNIncreaseNiles1815-1888
Bibliography
Dexter, Henry Martyn. Sketch of the Life of Increase Niles Tarbox. Boston: David Clapp & Son, Printers, 1890. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=0VwEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=increase+niles+tarbox&source=bl&ots=qgeFQpNKr9&sig=nzeVeXnUKVxmhvPtOal3cdrOOBU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwixlJCgzqPcAhWxmeAKHZaqDLIQ6AEIQTAH#v=onepage&q=increasenilestarbox&f=false Accessed 16 July 2018.
“Rev. Increase Niles Tarbox.” Memorial no. 150509369. Find A Grave. 11 Aug. 2015. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150509369/increase-niles-tarbox Accessed 15 July 2018.
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University: Deceased during the Academical Year ending in June 1888. Tuttle, Morehouse, & Taylor Printers, 1888. Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives. http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1887-88.pdf Accessed 8 Aug. 2018.
The Rev. John Swift (c.1678 – 1745) was Framingham’s first official minister. Very little is known of Swift’s childhood and adolescence. He was born and raised in Milton, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard in 1697. Two years after his graduation, he came to Framingham to preach.
Plaque. Photograph by M. S. Evans. From the FHC collection. 2002.117
Framingham was incorporated as a town in 1700. At its second town meeting on August 21, 1700, Swift was asked to stay on as the town’s first resident minister. As payment for his services, he received 100 pounds toward the cost of building a house in the area of present day Swift Road and Maple Street, one hundred acres of land, 10 acres of meadows on Maple Street. Rev. Swift also received a yearly salary of sixty pounds. He held religious services in the town’s meetinghouse, a two story barn-like building measuring forty feet by thirty feet built in 1698 on Bare Hill. Thomas Danforth had set aside this land in the center of Framingham’s six settlements for ministerial use.
With Rev. Swift in the pulpit, the first official church in Framingham was established in 1701 by eighteen families. The Framingham Church was associated with the Puritan religion and all citizens of the town were taxed to support it and the minister. In 1735, a second meetinghouse was built in the center of town in the area of Vernon Street and Edgell Road. It was larger than the first measuring fifty five feet by forty two feet and three stories high.
Rev. Swift not only ministered to his parishioners, but according to entries in his diaries, he served on nineteen ecclesiastical councils over an eight year period. Annually, as was the custom of the time, he met with the young people in the congregation to publicly quiz them on their catechism.
Rev. Swift married Sarah Tileson (1674-1747) on December 16, 1701 in Dorchester, Massachusetts and they had six children, five girls and one boy. Following in his father’s footsteps John Swift, Jr. served as minister in Acton, Massachusetts after graduating from Harvard College. From 1733 to 1734, he worked as a school master in Framingham.
For forty-four years John Swift served as minister to Framingham. After a long illness, he died on April 24, 1745 and was buried in the Old Burying Ground on Main Street. His obituary in the Boston Evening Post, dated May 13, 1745, described him as pious, diligent, intelligent, faithful and prudent.
On June 17, 1911, The Framingham Historical and Natural History Society erected a granite marker with bronze plaque to mark the site of Rev. John Swift’s home on Maple Street.
Facts
Abel Benson was the grandson of Rev. Swift’s slave Nero.
Framingham settlements in 1700s: Saxonville, Nobscot, Salem End, Pratt’s Plain, Stone’s End, and Sherborn Row.
Members of the first church in Framingham: Henry Rice, Daniel Rice, Jonathan Hemingway, Thomas Drury, John Stow, Simon Mellen, Peter Cloise, Benjamin Bridges, Caleb Bridges, Thomas Mellen, Benjamin Nurse, Samuel Winch, John Haven, Isaac Bowen, Stephen Jennings, Nathaniel Haven, Thomas Frost.
Framingham’s first official road was built to connect the Meeting House to the minister’s home.
First meeting house site is within the Old Burying Ground on Main Street
Rev. Swift was ordained October 8, 1701
Bibliography
Barber, John Warner. Historical Collections Relating to the History and Antiquities of Every Town Every in Massachusetts with Geographical Descriptions. Warren Lazell, 1844. https://archive.org/stream/historicalcolle00barbuoft#page/386/mode/2up/search/framingham Accessed 01 Aug. 2017.
Herring, Stephen. Framingham: An American Town. Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.
“History of the Plymouth Church.” The Plymouth Church in Framingham. https://sites.google.com/site/plymouthwebsite/whoarewe/history Accessed 05 July 2017.
Temple, Josiah H. History of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1640-1885. A special Centennial year reprinting of the 1887 edition, New England History Press, 1988.
Michael Hodge Simpson (1809-1884) was a nineteenth century businessman and inventor. He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts on November 15, 1809, the son of sea captain and merchant Paul S. Simpson and Abigail (Johnson Hodge) Simpson. Eager to pursue a career in trade, Michael left school in his mid-teens to work as a clerk in Adams and Emery’s commission house in Boston. A few years later, when the Adams and Emery house went out of business, he went to work for the mercantile firm of Jonathan Emery & Son. It was during this time that he and a fellow clerk by the name of Charles Henry Coffin became involved in making “small deals” buying and selling hides, wool, and horns in Calcutta, India and Buenos Aires, Argentina. These “small deals” soon became “big deals” which led Simpson and Coffin to establish their own import business – all before the age of twenty-one years!
Michael Hodge Simpson. From the FHC collection. 2003.663
Michael Simpson married Elizabeth Davies Kilham of Boston in 1833. The couple had five children, only three of whom survived their parents. When in Framingham, the family live in an impressive hillside mansion called Chestnut Cottage at 50 Elm Street in Saxonville. The family also maintained a home at 6 Ashburton Place in Boston, and a seaside cottage on Plum Island, Newburyport.
By the age of twenty-six, Simpson’s professional life took a new path. He went from import merchant, to inventor, and finally to woolen manufacturer. Purchases of one million pounds of dirty, raw, low-grade wool had accumulated in his warehouses. The raw wool was burr-filled and needed to be cleaned before it could be sold. In the past, deburring wool had been done by hand, but it was too expensive. So Simpson began to search for a deburring machine. He finally chose an invention that had been developed by Samuel Couillard, Jr. of Boston. He then set up his own mill, the Simpson Worsted Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts. Not completely satisfied with Couillard’s design, Simpson worked diligently to improve the machine. At last he had success when he created a machine that no longer cut the fibers as it removed the burrs. On July 7, 1835, he was issued a patent for his new invention. The Simpson Worsted Mill product lines included bunting, and blanket and worsted yarns. In 1833 after the death of his partner, George H. Otis, Simpson sold his import business to Whitehall, Bond & Co., the owners of the Saxon Factory. He moved his woolen shop and machinery from Lowell to Saxonville in early 1837. He became part owner of the Saxon Factory, which was owned by New England Worsted Company. During the Panic of 1837, Simpson, as principle creditor, took over management of the Saxon Factory and the New England Worsted Company.
Chestnut Cottage, 50 Elm Street. Photograph by M. S. Evans. From the FHC Collection. 2002.285
During the 1850s, Simpson partnered with John Johnson, a mill owner from Troy New York to produce tapestry carpets. Simpson bought out the bankrupt Roxbury Carpet Company, and moved Johnson’s tapestry carpet looms to the mills in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Johnson was hired to manage the plant. The tapestry carpet line proved to be very successful and was produced by the company until its closing in 1973. The Panic of 1857 brought further changes to the ownership of the Roxbury Carpet Company and the Saxonville mills. The Saxonville mills once again failed, and Simpson with Nathaniel Francis stepped in and purchased both companies.
During the Civil War, 1861-1865, the factory shifted from production of civilian blankets and carpet yarn to the production of blankets and blue kersey cloth for the Union Army. The high demand for cloth and blankets kept the workers busy and the looms humming. By 1875, the Saxonville Mills was the largest taxpayer in Framingham and employed ten percent of the population. Saxonville was booming.
Simpson’s Mill. From Framingham Illustrated. From the FHC collection. 1995.36.39
Simpson proved to be a very generous employer. From 1871 and 1873, he built tenement housing for his employees in Saxonville. These comfortable apartments full of the latest conveniences were highly sought after by the mill workers. Several of these buildings are still standing, and can be found on Danforth Street and Centennial Place. In 1871, Simpson donated land for the Edwards Chapel on Elm Street. He established the Framingham Public Library branch in Saxonville which bore the name, The Simpson Branch, until 1963 when it was renamed the Saxonville Branch. Simpson also built a series of scenic drives and parks in the area for the public to enjoy. One such drive is Simpson Drive, a one and one half mile road on the banks of the Sudbury River which opened in 1878. The 1880s, brought more real estate development. He converted the Methodist church and parsonage on Church Street to tenements and started work on the Simpson block of stores, a three story wooden structure on the corner of Danforth and Concord Streets.
Tragedy struck the Simpson family when Elizabeth died suddenly on June 23, 1878. The Saxonville community was also saddened. To show respect for Elizabeth, the mills were closed on the day of her funeral. On June 1, 1882 at the age of seventy-two, Simpson married twenty-seven year old Evangeline E. Thurston Marrs of Saxonville.
Tenement House on Centennial Place. From the Framingham History Center Collection.
In 1880, Simpson’s son Frank, after one year at Harvard Law School, returned to Framingham to work with his father at the mills. Frank ran the mills until his death in 1916.
Around midnight on November 28, 1883, George Barker, a night watchman, discovered a small fire in the dry room of Mill #2. Using buckets of water, he put out the fire and then continued on with his rounds. When he next checked that building the fire had reignited. The fire spread and soon the building was engulfed. In the end almost the entire mill complex, including four main buildings and all their machinery, were destroyed. Suddenly five hundred twenty five people were out of work. Simpson vowed to rebuild the mills, but this would take time. His workers didn’t have much time as they needed food, shelter and a pay check. Simpson assisted many of his employees during this dire time. He continued to pay any employee who asked him for work; many of these workers helped to clean up the debris from the fire. He did not collect rent from workers living in his apartments. And he allowed his workers to use his land on Elm Street to grow some of their own food. In October 1884, the almost completed new mill, a one story building, half the size of the original mill, opened for business with limited production capacity. It was not until December 19th that construction was finally completed and the mill was declared fully operational. Two days later, Simpson died at his home in Boston at the age of seventy five.
As a tribute to their former boss, the mills were shut down for the three hours of his funeral. Michael Simpson was buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Facts
When the Number One Mill burnt to the ground in 1872, the workers and Saxonville residents, fearing that the whole village would burn, helped to contain the flames by spreading wet woolen blankets on the roofs to protect area buildings.
Simpson the inventor: in addition to his patents for improvements to the carpet/woolen making machinery, he also held patents for a better means of spraying the potato bug; a device for holding up pantaloons; and a means to kill and dispose of large numbers of grasshoppers!
Simpson the philanthropist: in addition to his generosity to the village of Saxonville, he also donated an infirmary to Wellesley College in 1881; he made a large donation to Newburyport for an addition to their library; he contributed $50,000 to build a jetty at the mouth of the Merrimack River; and he gave monies for road construction, the sprinkling of streets in summer, and other public projects.
Children: Helen Simpson Seeley, ?- 1932, lived in Cincinnati; Emmeline Simpson, 1842-1844; Grace Simpson, 1845-1904, never married; Michael Henry (Harry) Simpson, 1850 (or 2)-1872 died in Italy of malaria after his Harvard graduation; Frank Ernest Simpson, 1859-1916, never married, took over mill operations after his father’s death
Father: 1773-1854; born in York, Maine; a shipbuilder/owner, ship captain and foreign trader.
Mother: 1782-1856; born in Newburyport, Massachusetts; widow of J. S. Hodge.
Upon Frank’s death, his sister Helen inherited the business which she sold in 1919. The Roxbury Carpet Company ceased operation in the early 1970s.
Bibliography
MICHAEL H. SIMPSON DEAD.” Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922), Dec 22 1884, p. 4. ProQuest. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/hnpnewyorkbostonglobe/docview/493140206/fulltextPDF/14A80E0489D34D7APQ/1?accountid=9675 Accessed 12 Oct. 2018.
“Michael Hodge Simpson.” Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936. Biography In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/BT2310003454/BIC?u=fpl&sid=BIC&xid=61fa9274. Accessed 5 Aug. 2018.
“Michael Hodge Simpson.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/167207543/michael-hodge-simpson Accessed 5 Aug. 2019.
“Michael Simpson of Saxonville.” Historic Framingham. Posted Wed. 2, 2009 http://historicframingham.blogspot.com/2009/09/michael-simpson-of-saxonville.html Accessed 5 Aug. 2019.
Reid, Gene B. Michael H. Simpson and the Saxonville Mills with the Roxbury Carpet Co. Framingham Historical Society, 1982.
“SAXONVILLE’S GREAT LOSS.” Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922), Nov 30 1883, p. 4. ProQuest. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/hnpnewyorkbostonglobe/docview/493105783/fulltextPDF/2A9DC64EB46C4E72PQ/15?accountid=9675 Accessed 6 Nov. 2018.
Peter Salem (c.1750 – 1816) was a slave born in Framingham. His first owner was Jeremiah Belknap, who later sold him to Lawson Buckminster, a lieutenant under Captain Simon Edgell. During the Revolutionary War, a war to make the colonies free from England, Peter Salem was given his freedom from slavery for a short time so that he could fight for the colonies. He joined Captain Simon Edgell’s company of minutemen – men who had to be ready to fight at a moment’s notice – and fought in the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Five days later, he transferred to Captain Thomas Drury’s company which was part of Col. John Nixon’s 5th Massachusetts Regiment. On June 17, 1775, Drury’s company fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major battle of the American Revolution. It was in this battle that British Major John Pitcairn was killed by an African American soldier. It may be that Peter Salem fired the shot that killed Pitcairn.
On November 12, 1775, General George Washington decreed that no blacks, either slaves or freedmen, could serve in the military. When news that the governor of Virginia had freed all slaves willing to fight against the British reached Washington, he issued a new edict on December 30, 1775 (and approved by the Continental Congress on January 16, 1776) allowing all free blacks to serve in the military. Peter Salem was released from slavery and he re-enlisted in the military. He also fought in the Battle of Saratoga, New York in September 1777, and the Battle at Stony Point, New York in July 1779. Peter Salem served in the military for a total of seven years.
An example of the caned chairs Salem crafted.
After the war, Salem settled in the Sucker Pond area of Framingham and made a meager living caning chair seats and making and mending baskets. Peter was also known as a storyteller. Children and adults alike enjoyed listening to his stories about the war. In 1783, he married Katy Benson. Peter and Katy had no children. Eventually he moved to Leicester, Massachusetts hoping to find work. There he continued to eke out a living weaving baskets and caning chairs. Peter never prospered and in his old age he was dependent on charity. The town officials in Leicester eventually sent him back to Framingham to live in the poorhouse. His former masters, Lawson Buckminster and Jeremiah Belknap, gave monies to the town to support Salem for the rest of his life. Peter died on August 16, 1816 and is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Framingham. In 1882, the town of Framingham erected a monument at his gravesite.
Further Reading
Carp, Benjamin L. “Bunker Hill, Battle of.” Encyclopedia of the New American Nation, edited by Paul Finkelman, vol. 1, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2006, pp. 231-232. U.S. History in Context,
“Black Patriots of the American Revolution.” Wallbuilder Report: Black History Issue, 2004. https://wallbuilders.com/black-history-issue-2004/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2017.
Bibliography
Davis, Burke. Black Heroes of the American Revolution. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1976.
Dennis Wepman. “Salem, Peter.” American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. http://www.anb.org/articles/06/06-00893.html. Accessed 04 Feb 2017.
Herring, Stephen. Framingham: An American Town. Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.
“Peter Salem.” Notable Black American Men, Book II, edited by Jessie Carney Smith, vol. 2, Gale. Biography in Context, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1622000743/BIC1?u=fpl&xid=448c494f. Accessed 4 Feb. 2017.
Quintal, George. Patriots of Color: A Peculiar Beauty and Merit, African Americans and Native Americans at Battle Road and Bunker Hill. Division of Cultural Resources, Boston National Historical Park, 2004, pp. 189-196. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/stream/patriotsofcolorp00quin#page/189/mode/1up. Accessed 1 Feb. 2017.
Russell, Thaddeus. “Peter Salem.” Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, Gale, 2006. Biography in Context, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K3444701117/BIC1? u=fpl&xid=29b9e5ba. Accessed 4 Feb. 2017.
Temple, Josiah H. History of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1640-1885. A special Centennial year reprinting of the 1887 edition, New England History Press, 1988.
Edna Dean Proctor (1829 – 1922) was born in Henniker, New Hampshire on September 18, 1829 to Captain John Proctor and his third wife Lucinda (Gould) Proctor. After her father died in 1837, her mother married Joseph Calef Thompson, a farmer, and the family moved to Andover, New Hampshire. Edna’s education began at home in Henniker with her mother as her teacher. In her teens, she attended Mount Holyoke Seminary (Class of 1845), but had to drop out due to illness. Later, she continued her education in Concord, New Hampshire. At an early age, she showed great promise as a writer and poet. While in her teens, some of her poems were published in the local newspaper.
In 1848, Miss Proctor began teaching art and music in Woodstock, Connecticut. Between 1850 and 1854, she taught at Mary Dutton’s school in New Haven, Connecticut. It was here that she met Henry Bowen, a successful newspaper publisher and printer, who hired her as a tutor for his eleven children. She moved to Brooklyn, New York to live with the Bowen family which brought her in contact with people in New York City’s highest social and intellectual circles. Among her friends, she counted John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and other poets of the day. Many of her poems were published in Henry Bowen’s newspapers, TheBrooklyn Union and TheIndependent.
While in Brooklyn, she attended Sunday services at the Plymouth Congregational Church where Henry Ward Beecher preached. He was a very inspirational speaker who was known for preaching about God’s love and his support of the abolition movement. Edna wrote down his sermons for the years 1856 through 1858 and published them in a book entitled Life Thoughts, Gathered from the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher.
Edna Dean Proctor was a world traveler. On a trip to Kentucky to visit an uncle in 1850, she spent some time in Cincinnati, Ohio where she met Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and sister of Henry Ward Beecher) and got involved in the anti-slavery movement. During the Civil War, Miss Proctor wrote many poems in support of abolition and the Union cause. In 1866, she traveled to Europe, the Middle East, and the Holy Land with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Storrs and their daughter Sarah of Brooklyn, New York. Her diaries from this trip were the inspiration for her book A Russian Journey which describes peasant life in Russia. Upon her return from this trip, she went to live with the Storrs family in Brooklyn.
Edna stayed with the Storrs’ family in Brooklyn until 1885, the year Charles Storrs died. At this time, she left Brooklyn and moved to Framingham, Massachusetts to live with her mother and sister. While in Framingham, she lived at several locations including Union Avenue and Proctor Street. Edna became part of the literary community around Boston and belonged to the Boston Author’s Club.
Edna Dean Proctor’s career as a poet was at its peak from the 1860’s to the early 1870s. Later in life, she wrote poems for special occasions including “Columbia’s Banner” (1893) for the Columbus Day programs across the United States and “Framingham” (1900) for the town’s bicentennial celebration. She also published seven books of poetry throughout her lifetime- Poems in 1866 (national poems written during the Civil War); Poems in 1890; The Song of the Ancient People in 1892 (poems about a group of Pueblo Indians, the Zunis of New Mexico); A Russian Journey in 1899 (life in Russia); The Mountain Maid and other Poems of New Hampshire in 1900; Songs of America and other Poems in 1905; and The Glory of Toil and other Poems in 1916.
Edna never married. She died on December 18, 1922 at the age of 94 at the Kendall Hotel in Framingham. She is buried next to her mother in the Edgell Grove Cemetery. The Framingham History Center has one of Edna’s dresses as well as an original copy of A Russian Journey on display as part of the History in the Stitches Exhibit.
The Edna Dean Proctor Bridge in Henniker, New Hampshire. Edna left funds in her will to Henniker to repair the bridge and after being destroyed in a 1938 hurricane, the funds were used to rebuild it. The town decided then to name it after her. (Library of Congress HAER NH,7-HEN,3)
Further Reading
“Online Books by Edna Dean Proctor.” The Online Books Page. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=ProctorEdnaDean1829-1923 Accessed 14 March 2017.
Bibliography
Brown, Janice. “Henniker New Hampshire Poet: Edna Dean Proctor (1827-1923)” Cow Hampshire’s History Blog. Posted 7 August 2007. http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2007/08/07/henniker-new-hampshire-poet-edna-dean proctor-1827-1923/ Accessed 1 March 2017.
Cost, Charles C. Edna Dean Proctor, Poetess of the Contoocook. Henniker Historical Society, 2008.
“Edna Dean Proctor.” House of Proctor Genealogy. http://www.houseofproctor.org/genealogy/showmedia.php?mediaID=8639 Accessed 14 March 2017.
Lamb’s Biographical dictionary of the United States, edited by John Howard Brown. Vol. 6. Federal Book Co., 1903. P. 361. Accessed 14 March 2017.
Perkins, George B., et al. “Proctor, Edna Dean (1829-1923).” Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature, vol. 1, HarperCollins, 1991, p. 882. Literature Resource Center, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do p=GLS&sw=w&u=fpl &v=2.1&id=GALEA16854557&it=r&asid=991d1f91fbe27e2519cc3a2646755beb Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.
John Joseph Prindiville, Sr. (1870 – 1946) was a business and civic leader in early twentieth century Framingham and New England. He was the first of five children born to Maurice J. Prindiville, Jr. and Mary (Leary) Prindiville of Palmer, Massachusetts. At the age of twelve, Prindiville began working as a water boy on a construction site in Palmer, Massachusetts. He subsequently began a seven year apprenticeship under Michael J. Dillon, a Palmer brick mason and builder. In 1895, he established his own construction company, the J. J. Prindiville Company, in Athol, Massachusetts.
John J. Prindiville, Sr. Framingham History Center Collection.
Around 1898, Prindiville was hired to do masonry work on the Twombly Building in Framingham’s Irving Square. Soon after, he relocated his business to downtown Framingham. The J. J. Prindiville Company was contracted to construct numerous buildings throughout the town. During the 1920s, downtown Framingham experienced a building boom. Because of its reputation for fine and creative work, the J. J. Prindiville Company played a major part in the downtown’s transformation. The Memorial Building, the Kendall Hotel, the stone building for Grace Congregational Church, St. Bridget Church, the brick Framingham Union Hospital, Framingham High School on Union Avenue, the armory for Company E on Union Avenue, The Arcade and the Hemenway, Wilsonia, Crouch, Mullaney, Prindiville, Fitts buildings are just a few of the innovative building completed by J. J. Prindiville Company.
The year 1928 was a high point for the J. J. Prindiville Company. The company was selected to build the Memorial Building on land purchased from the Merriam Family at the intersection of Union Avenue and Concord Street. The building, the new town hall, was completed in only sixteen months and came in under budget! On February 22, 1928, the Memorial building was dedicated in memory of the Framingham’s soldiers, sailors, marines, and nurses. To top off this success, in that same year, downtown shoppers were introduced to another construction jewel, the Arcade. Located inside the Mullaney Building, the space offered an indoor walkway with shops on both sides and skylights overhead, a predecessor to the modern mall!
Memorial Building. Photographed by Cokell. FHC Collection. 2002.658
Construction was not Prindiville’s only business. He was the owner and president of the LaPointe Machine Tool Company of Hudson, Massachusetts and Edgewater, England. This company under Prindiville’s leadership grew from a small concern to one of the largest broaching machine companies of the time. He also served as president of the International Engineering Works in Framingham. Prindiville was one of a group of local men who founded the Framingham Trust Company. For years, he served on the Trust Company’s Board of Directors.
Prindiville was also very involved in many civic activities. He was President of Framingham’s Chamber of Commerce, served as a sewer commissioner, and helped form the Public Works Commission, which was the predecessor of the Department of Public Works. Prindiville was selected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve on the Public Works Administrations’ advisory board of Massachusetts.
Prindiville married Anna A. Mullaney on June 20, 1900 in Athol, Massachusetts. The couple settle in Framingham living for years in a house located at 78 Union Avenue (corner of DeLoss Street). Around 1919, the family purchased a home set on twenty of acres of land at 863 Central Street. The Prindivilles had six children, only four of whom survived to adulthood. Four years after Anna’s death of stomach cancer in 1923, Prindiville married Hazel Dillon.
John J. Prindiville, Sr. died on April 30, 1946 in Framingham. He is buried in St. Stephen’s cemetery.
Facts
Born on December 8, 1870
His second wife, Hazel Dillon Prindiville was the daughter of Michael J. Dillon, the man who had employed Prindiville as a water boy when he was twelve years old.
The Prindiville estate on Central Street, sold to the Marist Foreign Missionary Sisters who then turned it over to the Order of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm in 1967, is the current day location of St. Patrick’s Manor.
Broaching: a machine process that uses a toothed tool (called a broach) to remove metal quickly and consistently.
Bibliography
Herring, Stephen. Framingham: An American Town. Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.
“Leader in Building Industry [Obituary]. Framingham News 30 Apr. 1946.
Mullaney, Anna. “A Brief History in Pictures of John J. Prindiville, Sr.” Prindiville Family Reunion. 20 Sept. 2014, Wayside Inn, Sudbury Ma. Transcript.
“Plan 280-Bed Nursing Home on Central Street.” Framingham News 07 Dec. 1967.
