^'^

^Independence Forever'

QUINCY Old Braintree
Merry- Mount
AN ILLUSTRATED SKETCH
By
DANIEL MUNRO WILSON

The town of Quincy, — the home of Wheel
wright and Coddington; the birthplace of
Hancock, the Adamses, and the Quincys; a
spot to be held in everlasting remembrance in
the history of religious and civil liberty. —
John G. Palfrey.

"^

OTIUrt SINE UTERIS ™rs EST.

fe.

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

From the Library of
ANNIE BURR JENNINGS
the gift of
ANNIE BURR LEWIS

QUINCY, OLD BRAINTREE,
AND MERRY-MOUNT
An Illustrated Sketch

By DANIEL MUNRO WILSON

IHE OLD CEDAE OF MERRY-MOUNT

Boston
Press of Geo. H. Ellis Co.
I 906

S'i'

SUMMIT OF SQUANTUM, OR SQUAW ROCK

FOREWORD.

This sketch is published in response to a demand for a " Souvenir
of Quincy" with many illustrations and popular in price. Something
of the kind would inevitably be issued. Hence a cogent consideration
was that a sympathetic compilation and selection of photographs
from ample materials would compass what is desired — a production
really worthy of the city — more satisfactorily than one emanating
chiefly from commercial motives. Many conspired with this
liberal view of things to the extent of generously offering suggestions
and furnishing facts and photographs. To Mr. James L. Edwards,
treasurer of the Quincy Historical Society, I am especially indebted
for material belonging to his private collection or confided to his
care. Photographs have been loaned by Mr. Henry F. Guild, for
merly of Atlantic; Mr. Wendell G. Corthell; the city clerk, Mr.
Harrison A. Keith; Mr. Julius Johnson; Mrs. W. S. Blanchard, and
C. B. Webster & Co., the Boston firm which has photographed sa
many of Quincy's famous houses. DANIEL MUNRO WILSON.
Patriots' Day, 1906.

Copyright, 1906, hy
Daniel Mxjnro Wilson.

DOROTHY HANCOCK WALL PAPER
" And gladly would we note the noble lives,
The names whose memory in this place survives
In golden gleams along the historic thread
That binds the living to the immortal dead:
Those who through stormy days of battles grim
The struggling nation's counsels wisely led;
And when her pathway grew perplexed and dim,
And help was far, and hope seemed almost fled,
Lifted her drooping head." Christopher Pearse Cranch.

UINCY sits enthroned upon her hills by the sea, nour
ishing her patriotism far-drawn from a glorious past,
and facing the future with bright expectancy. A city
distinguished among the most famous; the one civic
unit in the United States which has given two Presi
dents to the nation; chosen home of Independence;
birthplace of the first signer of the immortal Declara
tion; native soil of other far-famed leaders in statecraft, literature,
and education,— she is also astir with the masterful spirit of this twenti-

eth century. Great in the days that are gone, because of a happy
colonization of noble souls; great in the days that are to come she
promises to be, because of the people and the enterprises attracted
by the singular advantages of her commanding hills and her sinuous
shores. FOR beauty of situation, Quincy is not surpassed by any other
town or city fronting Massachusetts Bay. The winding Ne-
ponset on the north separates her from Boston, and the Fore
River on the south from Weymouth. All between, the coast line

VIEW FROM HOUGHS NECK

wanders in and out around headlands and inlets, lengthening beyond
that of any other sea-laved town in the Commonwealth. Inland, the
disposition of hill and upland level seems exquisitely ordered to
afford the finest views of the shimmering bay, and the far-spreading
plain of ocean, widening to the horizon, blue as the sky.

JHE first white men Avho landed on these fortunate shores
were atmosphered by the loveliness of sea and land
deepening through rare September days. At that
time of the year a party of Pilgrims left Plymouth on
an exploring expedition, led by Captain Myles Stan-
dish. "Crossing the sweet air from isle to isle over
the silent streams of a calm sea," they came to what is, perhaps,
the most attractive bit of scenery to be found for miles, — the rocky
headland then and there named Squantum in honor of the friendly
Indian guide Squanto. So delighted were the Pilgrims with all

MOSWETUSET HUMMOCK

they saw that they wished that "they had been ther seated." This
landing was made Sept. 30, 1621, and the event has been commemo
rated by the erection of the Myles Standish cairn by the Regent of the
Adams Chapter, D. R., Mrs. Nelson V. Titus. At the dedication
Monday, Sept. 30, 1895, Charles F. Adams, the younger, who de
livered the principal address, praised in equal terms the sturdy Plym
outh Captain and the faithful Squanto. This also was the
burden of the words spoken by Mrs. Titus, Mrs. William Lee,
Regent of the D. R. of Massachusetts, and ex-Mayor Charles H.
Porter.

6

Standish was seeking the Sachem of the Massachusetts tribe of
Indians, who, it was surmised, might be found on the ancient planting
ground of his race, the meadows since called " Massachusetts Fields,"
or near " Moswetuset Hummock," his tradi
tional seat of rule. Here, on this rocky islet,
surrounded by its sea of salt marsh and the
brown sands of the shore, was the council
fire of the native tribe from which our State
takes that name which has been made "a
name and a praise in all the earth." "God
save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!"
" The Sachem of the bay, by Squantum's shore.
Held o'er his feathered warriors sway of yore;
There stood his wigwam in the hummock's shade.
There the maize-tassels with the breezes played.
There the red hunter chased the antlered game, —
Thence Massachusetts took her honored name."
William P. Liint. MYLES STANDISH CAIRN

OR the first settlement upon Quincy territory we come
down to the year 1625, when Captain Wollaston es
tablished a trading post on, or close by, the hillock
since known as Mount Wollaston. In his absence his
rebellious servants, led by Thomas Morton, "that
pettifogger from Furnival's Inn," flung off all authority,
declared their independence, every man doing what
was right in his own eyes. On May Day, 1627, they flaunted their
freedom in the sight of solemn Puritanism by setting up the far-
famed May-pole. Hilariously these unleashed pagans from the pur
lieus of the gross court of King James danced about the "idoll" of
Merry-Mount, joining hands with "the lasses in beaver coats," and
singing their ribald songs. For this, and also because they sold arms
to the savages, Myles Standish, with his army of eight men from
Plymouth, scattered them and arrested Morton.

SCANDALOUS, this entire episode, — very scandalous ! almost as
bad as the debauches of some present sons of the Puritans!
But what resident of Quincy would have it buried in obHvion ?
It savors of romance, it has a touch of the picturesque, it anticipates
the free camaraderie of the Western cowboy, it distinguishes us in
story. Is not Hawthorne's "May-pole of Merry-Mount" a classic .=
and is not Motley's "Merry-Mount" a name in American literature.^
Fortunately, the little hill has been left to nature. There it is on the
estate of Mrs. John Quincy Adams just as it was when it was over
topped by the May-pole, "a goodly pine of eighty foot, ... a faire sea
mark for direc
tions, how to find
out the way to
mine host of
Ma-re-Mount. "
A generation ago
it was treeless,
save for the tall
bent stem of a
single aged ce
dar. Now the
hill is clothed
with young trees,
all but the sum
mit. A land
mark it is still;
the scene of a
comedy not to be forgotten. It has become our " Mons Sacer," not
only on account of that earliest event in our history, but because on the
seal of the city of Quincy it figures as the chief device. When, in 1882,
the committee appointed to present a design for the seal was con
sidering the matter, George W. Morton, one of its members, sug
gested to the present Charles F. Adams, who was chairman, that
Mount Wollaston with the single bent cedar would be both appropriate
and picturesque. Mr. Adams at once adopted the idea. A sketch of
the hill, barren as it then was, had been made a little more than fifty

LJ^^M9!

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MERRYMOUNT, HOME OF MRS. J. Q. ADAMS
John Q. Adams

John Adams
BIRTHPLACES OF THE PRESIDENTS
From a sketch in 1822

Home of Joseph Marsli

BIRTHPLACES OF THE PRESIDENTS, FROM A RECENT PHOTOGRAPH

9

years before by George W. Beale, Jr. From this sketch was taken
the salient feature, — the summit of the hill with its tree and the sea
beyond. Dates were then set down, and for motto Mr. Adams chose
the Latin word Manet, "It remains." A most satisfactory achieve
ment. The hill remains, connecting the present with the past; the
town remains, continuous in its history and development; the free
spirit of it remains; the fame of it remains, and will remain forever.
The tree does not remain. It was blown down in a storm Nov.
10, 1898. Shortly before a chance snap-shot was taken of it by Chas.
E. Sampson, and this, by another happy chance, was seen by J. L.
Edwards, who enlarged it. Later, in behalf of the Quincy Historical
Society, he placed a granite marker where the tree had stood.
The trunk is thirty-three feet long, and seven and a half feet
around the butt. Why not make of part of it a chair of state for our
Council Hall, which shall seat our worthy mayor, James Thompson,
and his successors ? It may come to be so valued that, like an
other "royal seat of Scone," kingdoms will ultimately contend for it.

*HE permanent settlement of Quincy can boast of
no such natural monument nor dramatic opening
scene. Nevertheless, significant was this event. In
the souls of those earnest pioneers who sought liberty
and homes of peace in the wilderness were Declara
tions of Independence, and Free Constitutions. Their
memorial is now visible to the discerning eye, in a Mighty Democ
racy enfranchising the world. " Who, then," asks John Adams, " was
the author, inventor, discoverer, of Independence ? The only true

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PQ I
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O wH
a ?5

1-1OWW
o

11
answer must be the first immigrants." They were of that happy
breed of men through whose righteous aspirations the treasured noble
ness of England streamed into a Commonwealth there and here.
Such were the fathers of Old Braintree and Quincy, as of Plym-

JOHN ADAMS

outh and Salem and Boston, and every other right New England
community. Their manhood, intelligence, and independence glow
in every page of the town's history; their names are on our hills, and
they linger still in our homes: Bass, Saville, Spear, Cranch, Baxter,
Marsh, Penniman, Crosby, Brackett, Newcomb, Fenno, Vesey,

12
Cleverley, Faxon, Crane, Curtis, Hobart, Arnold, Glover, Nightin
gale, Hayden, Tirrel, Billings, and
"One name illustrious, which shall never fade;
Joined with another of an old renown, —
The name that blends with Harvard's classic shade,
And syllables your old familiar town."
THAT "name illustrious" was first brought to these shores by
Henry Adams. He probably arrived here in 1632 with the
Braintree Company, which began to " sit down " at Mount Wol
laston, as the entire region between Boston and Weymouth was then
called. Although the company was ordered elsewhere, enough re
mained to influence the settlement to name itself Braintree when it
was incorporated as a town in 1640. With Henry came his wife,
eight sons, and a daughter. After his death, in 1646, most of the sons,
vigorous pioneers that they were, sought the greater spaciousness of
the frontier, and settled in Concord and Medfieid. Joseph, the
seventh son, remained on the farm. He married Abigail Baxter, by
whom he had twelve children. His second son, another Joseph,
married Hannah Bass, and it is through him that the Adamses come
to the full strength of fibre and fame.
Here, then, after the overflow from Boston, which began
about 1634, were the Makers of America, — a whole townful of
them. Their quality was made entirely dominant by the fine strain of
"Great Mother" Joanna Hoar, widow of the Sheriff of Gloucester,
England. One of her daughters, Joanna, married the second Edmund
Quincy; another, Marjorie, married Minister Flynt ; a son, Leonard,
who married Bridget, daughter of the Lord Lisle who was President
of the Court which condemned King Charles, became the third Presi
dent of Harvard College; and another son, John, who removed to
Concord, is the ancestor of the family made famous by Senator George
F. Hoar and Judge E. R. Hoar. Later came the Cranches from
England, the Hardwicks and Breislers from Germany, and the Han
cocks from Lexington. As the sands of the sea for multitude are the
excellent and the eminent of to-day whose soul's substratum is traced
to the stream of Old Braintree and Quincy immigrants.

13

|T is said of John Adams, the Deacon, son of the
second Joseph, that he was a man typical of th^ farmer
class. Had he received a college education, wrote
President John Quincy Adams, "he would have been
distinguished either as a clergyman or as a lawyer."
His eldest son John, born Oct. 19, 1735, did re
ceive the college education, and not only became a lawyer, but
the great statesman of the Revolution, the chief advocate of Inde
pendence, and the second President of the United States.

OLD KITCHEN, HOME OF JOHN AND ABIGAIL ADAMS
THE house in which John Adams was born is the unpretentious
farm-house of the period. Its original rural surroundings
pictured in the sketch made by Miss Eliza Susan Quincy in 1822,
may be revived with a little aid from the imagination, — the old
Plymouth highway, the wide-spreading "Captain's Plain," through
which meandered the tree-fringed brook, the summits of the Blue
Hills, rising range above range to the highest land in eastern Massa
chusetts, the sparsely scattered homes of the neighbors, in one of

14
which was, as Miss Quincy wrote, "a highly respectable school,
kept for many years by Mr. Joseph Marsh, at which John Adams
and Josiah Quincy, Jr., were prepared for college." All lovely, then,
was the green unspoiled earth, and in keeping the homes which nestled
close to it: to-day how humble the "little hut," as he himself called
it, in which the President was born ! Humble, truly, yet a shrine for
meditation and for the elevation of thought! The more meagre the
material surroundings, the mightier the man who emerged from them.
John Adams was, indeed, one of the greatest in a supreme epoch of
human history. Not another leader of that eventful time, not Wash
ington, nor Franklin, nor Jefferson, surpassed him in prophetic an
ticipation of an Independent America, nor did any equal him in the
indomitable patience and power of persuasion which eventually won
the Declaration. New ages were in him, a new humanity in his sense
of natural rights. How clearly he voiced the daring aspirations of
that time and all time! of "radical New England," how profoundly!
" I am the trumpet at thy lips, thy clarion
Full of thy or)^, sonorous with thy breath."
THE birthplace of such a man is a Mecca of the free; the goal
of pilgrimages far drawn and yearly becoming more frequent.
Still in the possession of its original owners, the care of the
birthplace of John Adams has been intrusted to the Adams Chapter,
D. R. With enlightened sympathy they conserve every sentiment,
every antique plenishing which will restore this Cradle of American
Independence. One such shrine is enough to enrich a town. Quincy has two.
The similar structure so close by is the house to which John Adams
took his wife Abigail when he married her, the 25th of October, 1764.
It is the home in which John Quincy Adams was born. Two Presi
dents of the highest order, by native greatness forging to the front
in the creative hour when God was making a new Nation! It is a
grace which falls to no other community. Fortunate the place,
"this blessed plot, this earth," dowered with lives so great and high,
with patriots of such utter faithfulness.
Both houses came into the possession of John Adams. The one

15
in which ii^-bigail and he began housekeeping was built in 1716, and
was left him by his father, together with forty acres of land, when he
died in 1761. Later he bought of his brother "my father's home
stead and home where I was born." This was built in 1687. The
Quincy Historical Society occupies the " John and Abigail Adams
cottage," and their appreciative restorations are exemplified in the
picture of the "old kitchen."

ABIGAIL ADAMS

ABIGAIL ADAMS, the mistress of this expanding domestic
establishment, was a woman worthy in all respects to be the
wife of John Adams. Beautiful was she in face and soul;
a wise, loving, and gracious daughter of New England. She was
the daughter of the Rev. William Smith, of Weymouth. Her mother
was a Quincy, a daughter of Colonel John Quincy and Elizabeth
Norton, his wife, who lived on the farm at Mount Wollaston. This
is the bond of kinship which unites the Adamses and the Quincys.

16
Solemnly was that bond honored at the baptism of the first child
of John and Abigail Adams, born July 11, 1767. Mrs. Smith,
the mother of Abigail, was present, and she requested that the child
should be named John Quincy, after her father, then breathing his
last at the age of seventy-eight. Long afterwards President John
Quincy Adams wrote as follows of this transaction: "It was filial
tenderness that gave the name. It was the name of one passing
from earth to immortality. These have been among the strongest

DRAWING-ROOM IN ADAMS MANSION

links of my attachment to the name of Quincy, and have been to me
through life a perpetual admonition to do nothing unworthy of it."
COLONEL JOHN QUINCY was in his day a man of eminence,
strong in his personality, able and highly honored; one of the
greatest of the Quincys. He was the son of Daniel Quincy,
the first-born of Edmund Quincy and Joanna Hoar. Thus the

17
Adamses through him inherit, not only the fine quality of the Quincys
at their best, but also the white fire of clear intellectual and moral
fervor which flamed in the souls of the "Great Mother" Joanna

JOHN QUINCY MONUMENT

Hoar and her offspring. Colonel John Quincy, not the least among
these offspring, was chosen to about every office a colonist might fill.
A monument has been placed over his grave in the old burying-

18
ground by the Quincy Historical Society, and a mural tablet to his
memory is to be added to those which adorn the walls of First
Church, our Westminster Abbey.
More imperishably is his memory honored, perhaps, in the name
of the City of Quincy. When, in 1792, the North Precinct of Brain
tree was erected into an independent township, the Hon. Richard
Cranch "recommended its being called Quincy, in honor of Col
onel John Quincy."

LET us return now to his namesake, John Quincy Adams.
Helpful to his mother beyond his years in those trying days
of the opening Revolution, he fearlessly becomes, when
barely nine years old, her "post rider," going on horseback alone
over the eleven long miles to
Boston. He was a year young
er than this when, on the morn
ing of the 17th of June, 1775,
he climbed with his mother
to the top of Penn's Hill to see
what they might of the battle
going on at Charlestown.
On the spot where Abigail
Adams and the young John
Quincy sought to penetrate the
portent which darkened the
horizon, a cairn has been erec
ted. This was done on the
anniversary of the battle in
1896. The large concourse of
Quincy residents and visitors
needed but the scene the mother
and son looked upon, and the
words of the speakers, to be thrilled with imaginations of that fateful
morningwhen, as the roar of cannon rose and fell, Abigail Adams prayed
Almighty God to cover the heads of her countrymen and be a shield
to her dear friends. In deepest sympathy with all that the memory

ABIGAIL ADAMS CAIRN

ADAMS MANSION

ADAMS MANSION-NEW GATE

20
of the occasion evoked, the Adams Chapter, D. R., arranged the
exercises of the day. Mrs. N. V. Titus, the Regent of the Chapter,
presided, and introduced those whose knowledge of the great events
of the past or whose relationship to some of the chief actors in them
singled them out as eminently qualified to take a leading part. The
corner-stone was laid by the Chapter, assisted by the present Abigail
Adams, daughter of John Quincy Adams, who, in the performance
of her part of operative masonry, made use of the trowel. Addresses
were delivered by Charles F. Adams, 2d, then Mayor of Quincy,
Edwin W. Marsh, and Charles F. Adams, the younger. A poem
was read by Miss Elizabeth Porter Gould, and was deposited with
other documents in the corner-stone.
i)N that memorable 17th of June when Abigail Adams
and her son trembled for their friends who were
gloriously fighting and dying for liberty, John
Adams, at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia,
was securing the election of Washington as Com
mander-in-Chief of the patriot army. It was the
stroke of a statesman, which cemented the union of North and
South, thus committing all the Colonies to the war for freedom.
The crowning achievement of John Adams came a year later,
at which time he stimulated Congress to the momentous Declara
tion of Independence. In him above all others the conviction of
its necessity was incarnated. For it he wrought night and day.
Finally, on the first day of July, 1776, he led off in a speech of sur
passing eloquence, and a "power of thought and expression which,"
said Jefferson, "moved the members from their seats." He was the
"Colossus of that Congress," as Jefferson testified, the "Atlas of
Independence," as Richard Stockton declared. He compelled con
viction, and, at last, on the 2d of July the resolutions of indepen
dency were unanimously adopted. The preparation of the immor
tal Declaration had been previously submitted to a committee con
sisting of Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and Livingston,
and on the evening of the 4th of July it was adopted with equal
unanimity.

21
ELATED and thankful was John Adams. In a burst of ex
ultation he wrote to Mrs. Adams: "The 2d day of July, 1776,
will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America.
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding genera
tions as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commem
orated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God
Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with

CITY HOSPITAL
Gift of Hon. William B. Rice

shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from
one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward, for-
evermore." So the event has been celebrated, but the 4th of July,
the date of the adoption of the Declaration, is the one the people
recognize as the culminating moment of the great event.
Trumbull's picture of the signing of the Declaration is true to the
life. John Adams, viewing it in Faneuil Hall in his later years, re
called that, when engaged in the signing, a side conversation took place

22

between Harrison, who was remarkably corpulent, and Elbridge
Gerry, who was remarkably thin. "Ah, Gerry," said Harrison,
"I shall have an advantage over you in this act." "How so.''"

ADAMS ACADEMY

PRESIDENTS' LANE

inquired Gerry. "Why," replied Hairison, "when we come to be
hung for this treason, I am so heavy, I shall plump down upon the
rope and be dead in an instant: but you are so light that you will
be dangling and kicking about for an hour in the air."

23
The high level of noble devotion to human liberty and to a greater
America which John Adams took upon his entrance into Congress,
he maintained to the end. He toiled terribly. He was a member
of ninety committees, and chairman of twenty-five. No other dele
gate bore upon his shoulders the weight of so heavy a burden. Truly,
he was the "Atlas of Independence." It was he, also, who induced
Congress to foster a navy, and who himself drew up its rules. And

here it is worth noting that John Adams and John Quincy Adams
never failed to evince their salt-water breeding. Both took an es
pecial interest in the navy and in the fisheries. They may be justly
called the originators of the one and the defenders of the other.
Space fails us to detail the other great services rendered by John
Adams, — how effectively he represented Congress in Europe; what
sagacity he displayed in forming the model of a Constitution which

24
was adopted by his own State, — yes, and other States, and which
influenced the form of the Constitution of the United States. He
lent essential assistance to the negotiations for peace, was later
chosen Vice-President, and at last, consummation of all, elected
President. Well does he deserve the title "Glorious Old John
Adams!" The Vassall house became the residence of John Adams when
finally he was permitted to return to private life. He lived in it
during the remainder of his days. This house had been the summer
residence of Leonard Vassall, a West India Planter and a violent
king-and-church Tory. He fled at the outbreak of the Revolution,
and his estate was afterwards sequestrated. The house was built
in 1731, and contains one room panelled from floor to ceiling in solid
St. Domingo mahogany. John Adams bought the estate in 1785.
Here, through uneventful years, the ex-President and his wife were
revered by their townspeople, called upon by adoring x\mericans,
and visited by eminent foreigners, not the least among whom was
Lafayette. Here, too, marvellous to relate, was celebrated their
golden wedding, that of their son John Quincy Adams, and that of
their grandson Charles Francis Adams. The old President seems
never to have had any declining years. Robust and active, he con
tinued to rise as early as four or five o'clock, often building his own
fire. When the weather permitted, he walked up "President's Lane"
to the top of "President's Hill," every morning, to see the sun rise
and every evening to see the sun set.
Memorable was the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the
Declaration of Independence. Quincy had made great prepara
tions for a joyous festival. John Adams was requested to grace the
occasion by his presence. This the venerable patriot was not able
to do, but he sent a dictated letter to Captain John Whitney, the
Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, and proposed a toast :
"I give you Independence Forever!" The 4th of July, 1826,
dawned brightly, and was hailed with the ringing of bells and the
firing of cannon. It was celebrated, writes Charles F. Adams, the
younger, "as its sturdiest supporter had fifty years before predicted
it would be, as 'a day of deliverance, with pomp and parade, with

QUINCY SQUARE, SOUTH, WITH STONE TEMPLE, OR FIRST CHURCH

26
shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations.' On
that fair glad day — in the midst of peace and prosperity and politi
cal good feeling, with the sound of joyous bells and booming guns
ringing in his ears, with his own toast of 'Independence Forever'
still lingering on the lips of his townsmen — the spirit of the old patriot
passed away. His last words were, 'Thomas Jefferson still sur
vives.' But Jefferson, too, had passed away a few hours earlier on
that memorable Independence Day."
"His beloved and only wife," Abigail, had died some eight years
previously, on the 28th of October, 1818. A few years before his
death, John Adams, moved, as he expressed it, "by the veneration
he felt for the residence of his ancestors and the place of his nativity,
and the habitual affection he bore to the inhabitants with whom he
had so happily lived for more than eighty -six years," gave to the
town a large tract of quarry lands to assist in building a new church
edifice. Later he gave other lands for the establishment of an acad
emy, and all of his private library, some 3,000 volumes, to further
the ends of such an institution.
jHE Stone Temple was dedicated Nov. 12, 1828. Into
the solid foundation of its front wall, and immedi
ately under the noble portico, two granite chambers
had been built. One received all that was mortal
of President John 'Adams, and "At his side Sleeps
till the Trump shall Sound, Abigail, his Beloved
and only Wife." Later the remains of their illustrious son,
John Quincy Adams, were entombed in the second chamber, to
gether with those of "His Partner for fifty Years, Louisa Catherine."
Sacred as a house of Christian worship is this Temple; sacrosanct
because of the dust it treasures, and because of its association with
the generations of noble men and women who have worshipped
beneath its wide and stately dome.
John Quincy Adams, whenever he was in his native town, was
always to be found of a Sunday in the "President's pew." As re
ligiously was it later occupied by his son, our great minister to Eng
land during the Civil War, Charles Francis Adams, and his family.

27

Here, also, were
to be seen, in an
adjoining pew,
Josiah Quincy,
President of Har
vard, and his fam
ily. Other names
— how dear to pres-
ent worshippers!
— arise in the
memory as past
days are dwelt
upon. Two tablets, one
on either side of
the imposing ma-

FIRST CHURCH FROM OLD BURYING-GROUND
Hoar tombstones at left

INTERIOR OF FIRST CHURCH, "STONE TEMPLE"

hogany pulpit, hon
or the Presidents
and their wives.
Other tablets to
the memory of
past ministers give
a distinctive char
acter to the spa
cious interior.
This effect will be
heightened when
the present
Charles F. Adams
shall have fulfilled
his intention of
placing on the
walls two other
tablets, — one to
the memory of
Rev. Henry Flynt

28

and the other to the memory of Colonel John Quincy. Our West
minster Abbey then, surely !
The stream of pilgrims who pass its portals, yearly increases.
The way to the tombs under the portico has been made convenient,
and a door of open iron-work has been hung, through which the
massive sarcophagi can be easily seen. Whatever will enable vis
itors to view the monuments in the church, and to steep themselves
for a satisfying space amid the great associations of the edifice, has
been arranged by the officials of the society. The pastor is the
Rev. Ellery Channing Butler.

WOODWARD INSTITUTE
THE Adams Academy was built in 1872, upon the site chosen
by John Adams, — the Hancock Lot, on which had stood the
house in which John Hancock had been born. Another edu
cational endowment was stimulated by the gift of John Adams.
The Adams Academy is exclusively for boys. Dr. Ebenezer Wood
ward, long a respected physician of the town, determined there should
be as fine a school for the higher education of girls. So in his will
he bequeathed a large portion of his estate to this end, advising
that his Institute should be built on that part of his land opposite
the Hancock Lot. There they stand to-day, — near, if not opposite.

29
— each emulating the other in affording to Quincy youth unusual
facilities for an excellent education. Yet another fine school, in this
instance a private one, has been added in these later years to our
numerous educational establishments. This is the "Quincy Man
sion School" for girls. Mr. Horace Mann Willard, the principal,
has transformed the latest residence of the Quincys at Wollaston,
has built two fine halls, the "Manchester" and the "Canterbury,"

QUINCY MANSION SCHOOL

and so created, in one of the most beautiful and historic parts of
the city, a refined and entirely modern boarding-school.
The public schools of Quincy have long been famous far and
wide. Indeed, some go so far as to utter the heresy that the city's
distinction as the birthplace of Presidents and the source of one
of the finest granites is distanced by the praise of her schools. Here
began that awakening to the real teaching of real things which came

30

?^<:a'

to be known as "The Quincy System." Colonel F. S. Parker, with
his new ideas, "made in Germany," was appointed superintendent
of schools, and given a free hand. On the school board were John
Quincy Adams, the present Charles Francis Adams, James H. Slade,
and other public-spirited and energetic citizens; and in them the
colonel found sympathetic coadjutors. The results were both surpris
ing and inspiring. Visi
tors from every State in
the Union swarmed
through the buildings to
see this new thing in
public education. The
best in that ferment has
been conserved and ap
plied. It suffers no dim
inution under the admin
istrative ability of Mr.
Frank F. Parlin, the
present excellent superintendent. The outlay for equipment has
been liberal and intelligently disbursed. The latest building, the
Washington, is the creation of a young Quincy architect, Albert
H. Wright. It is a fine example of what the city has been
furnishing in this line for the accommodation of its rapidly multi
plying school population.

WASHINGTON SCHOOL

OHN QUINCY ADAMS ranks high among the great
est characters in history. He is interesting in an ab
sorbing degree, in spite of what appears to be his
aloofness. W'hat an embodiment he was of aggressive
righteousness, of patriotic statecraft! His conscien
tiousness seemed too fine for daily use, his exalted reli
ance upon clearest principles too quixotic. For these
qualities we call him the Puritan President. Much of his life was
spent abroad and in intimate relations with the courts of Europe;
but Puritan he was born, and Puritan he remained, in veracity, hon-

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

LOVISA CATHERINE ADAMS

32
esty, clear manliness, and in devotion to an ideal America God
Almighty would take interest in.
His happy boyhood was spent in Quincy. After that his oppor
tunities to enjoy the home and the scenes he loved so well were few
and far between. At ten he went with his father to France. At
fourteen he was the private secretary of Francis Dana at the court
of Russia. Again, in France, he served Jefferson and Franklin
as secretary. He might have gone thence to London, when his
father was appointed minister to the English court; but he broke

HARRY L. RICE

away from this fascinating life because he was an ardent American.
He went to Harvard, and a little after graduating he was sent as
minister to The Hague. While on official business in London, he met
Louisa Catherine Johnson, daughter of Joshua Johnson, the Ameri
can consul, whom he married in 1797. Returning once more to his
native land, he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate, and then
to the National Senate; and this is the measure of his strides to the
position of Minister Plenipotentiary to England, to that of Secretary
of State, and eventually to that of the Presidency.

33
The "old man eloquent" is the title with which President J. Q.
Adams was crowned toward the end of his days in sheer admiration
of his abilities. Marvellous was that career of his in Congress after
he had served as President. Through years of conflict, one against
a hundred, he vindicated the right of Americans to petition the
House they themselves created. " Since parties were first organized in
this Republic, no statesman has ever approached him in persistent

TABLET TO PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

freedom of thought, speech, and action." He died in harness.
On the 21st of February, 1848, as he rose to address the Speaker of
the House, he fell unconscious. A few hours afterward, coming
to himself for a moment, he said distinctly: "This is the last of
earth. I am content." On the evening of the 23d he was at rest.
The funeral services, imposing in their character, were held in Stone
Temple.

s <
a <
OOP4m

oS<

35

HARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, the third son of Presi
dent J. Q. Adams, continued the great traditions of
the family. In him was the same moral persistence,
sagacity, industry, and devotion to the highest Amer
ican ideals. As Minister to England during the
Civil War, how great were his services! "None of
our generals in the field," said James Russell Low-
not Grant himself, did us better or more trying service than

OLD TIME BACK PIAZZA.-T. B. ADAMS' HOUSE, 1640

he in his forlorn outpost of London." There his high character,
his knowledge of international law, his imperturbability, kept England
from permitting the Confederate iron-clads, built in her yards, to assail
our shores. "For us," said Washington naval authorities, it was "a
matter of life and death to defeat this invasion." He was born in Bos
ton, Aug. 18, 1807, where his father was temporarily residing. When

DOROTHY HANCOCK

JOHN HANCOCK

37
hardly two years old, he was taken to Russia with his parents. Re
turning to America in 1817, he was placed under the care of his
grandmother, Abigail Adams, in Quincy. He graduated at Har
vard, and studied law under Webster. In 1829 he married Abi
gail B. Brooks, the youngest child of Peter C. Brooks, a noted Boston
merchant. That diplomatic skill of his, which was of the highest
order, and that patriotic spirit "unsurpassed by that of his fathers,"
were signally displayed once more when called upon to serve as arbi
trator on the part of the United States in the Geneva Tribunal,
summoned to adjust the "Alabama Claims." Much of his later
life was spent in Quincy. While deeply engaged in literary labors,
he, nevertheless, found time to interest himself in the higher wel
fare of the town, in which service Mrs. Adams also endeared herself
by her sympathy and unfailing tact. Mr. Adams was gathered to
his fathers Nov. 21, 1886; and Mrs. Adams followed him June
6, 1889. Their remains were interred in Mount Wollaston Ceme
tery. The six children of Charles F. Adams who lived to man
hood or womanhood have all distinguished themselves in social and
national life. Not unknown to fame are John Quincy, Charles
Francis, Henry, and Brooks. Affectionately is the memory of the
late John Quincy Adams cherished in this city. Year after year,
Tinder the town form of government, he was unanimously chosen
mioderator. With him for leader — tactful, wise, swift in decision,
witty, and resourceful — the town meetings were an unexcelled dis
play of democracy in action.

OHN HANCOCK,— another man "sent from God,
whose name was John"! The city came near being
named after him. He was at the height of his fame
when the North Precinct of Braintree was set off in
1792; and, as first Governor under the Constitution,
he signed the act incorporating the new town. Born
here on the 12th of January, 1737, he also wedded
the lovely Dorothy Quincy, who was bred in the old Quincy Home
stead. His name graces every patriotic address uttered in the hear-

QUINCY HOMESTEAD

DINING-ROOM, QUINCY HOMESTEAD

39
ing of our citizens. We have a Hancock School, a Hancock Street,
a Hancock House, and we did have a Hancock Light Guard.
The house in which Hancock was born was destroyed by fire in
May of 1759, fate ordaining what Lowell thought should befall
every house, — "When the first occupants go out, it should be burned,
and a stone set up with 'Sacred to the Memory of a House' on it."
The tablet is there on the Hancock lot in memory of the home of
the patriot, but his people were not the last occupants of the dwell
ing. Josiah Quincy (1710-84), having prospered by the fortu
nate capture of a Spanish ship, retired from Boston to Quincy,
and took up Lis residence in the Hancock parsonage. His daughter
was the adorable Hannah to whom John Adams all but proposed;
and one of his sons was the fervent patriot, Josiah Quincy, Jr. These
were the last occupants of the house. Meditating upon the catas
trophe, John Adams wrote in his diary: "It is not at all surprising
that the Colonel is more dejected than his brother [Edmund over
in the old Mansion, who lost all his property in an unlucky venture].
For his brother's dejection was more complete, yet the Colonel's
was less expected. Ned was reduced to worse than nothing. Josiah
has a competency left. . . . Edmund lost a son [Abraham by drown
ing off Germantown] as suddenly as the Colonel lost his house."
Early Hancock threw his wealth, his sacred honor, and his life
into the scale with the patriots. He was appointed one of the dele
gates to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and entered it
a proscribed rebel. General Gage offered pardon to all, except
Sam Adams and John Hancock, "whose offences are of too fiagitious
a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign
punishment." It was a son of old Braintree, thus singled out, whom
Congress honored by election to its Presidency. As Benjamin Har
rison conducted him to the chair, he remarked, "We will show
Great Britain how much we value her proscriptions." Hancock's
name was the only one signed to the Declaration of Independence
on July 4, the great day on which it was accepted. He signed it
in his bold characteristic handwriting, exclaiming, as he did so :
"There, John Bull can read that without spectacles. Now let him
double his reward."

40

The Hancocks retained to the end their interest in Quincy, or,
as it was then, Braintree. They returned now and again to its
familiar haunts. A visit made in 1787 had a sorrowful ending.
Their only son, John George Washington Hancock, nine years old,
met with an accident while skating. He did not recover from its
effects, and passed away, it is surmised, in the newer mansion of the
Quincys, that built by Josiah Quincy in 1770.

l^v^ilV

CODDINGTON'S KITCHEN, QUINCY HOMESTEAD
jHE Quincy Mansions are three in number. The
most ancient is the Quincy Homestead, which is still
standing. The story of it carries us back, without
a break in historic continuity, to Edmund, "the
immigrant," and to the first settlers on the shores of
Massachusetts Bay. From those early days till now
the finest elements in American life — its simplicity, its genuine
ness, its patriotisuT, its intellectual vigor, its moral daring — have
been illustrated in the occupants of that home and in those of the
other mansions of the Quincys. Edmund, "the immigrant," was
about thirty-one years old when he arrived in Boston, Sept.

41
4, 1633. With him came his wife Judith, and their two children,
Judith and Edmund. In 1635 there was granted to Edmund Quincy
and William Coddington a large tract of land at Mount Wollas
ton, as the region now included in the city of Quincy was first called.
Coddington, who was treasurer of the Colony, at once built him
a farm-house on the grant. This is still standing, — the most ancient
structure, perhaps, in New England. Coddington never trans
ferred his residence wholly to the "Mount." His visits were fre
quent, however; and a chamber in the house was especially reserved
for him.
Love of liberty drew Coddington to the "Mount" as much as
love of husbandry. It was the time of the "Antinomian Contro
versy," the earliest outbreak for freedom of thought which occurred
in New England; and a community of ardent liberals seemed rap
idly concentrating in this place. Here at Coddington's farm-house
were gatherings of some of the brightest spirits of the times, — Sir
Harry Vane, Ann Hutchinson, William Hutchinson, the Rev. John
Wheelwright, Edmund Quincy, and many another. Upon their
petition it was granted them, in 1636, to gather a church at the
"Mount," and to have Wheelwright for minister. At first, it would
seem likely, the worshippers met in Coddington's house, and then
in 1637 a meeting-house was built. This is virtually the begin
ning of the old First Church of Quincy. To be sure, it was soon
broken up; but some of the people remained, and the liberal tra
ditions remained, and both entered into the permanent organiza
tion of First Church, which occurred Sept. 16, 1639. The "lega
lists," alarmed at the progress of the liberals, rallied in Boston,
and drove them from the field. This was done with a rough hand.
Wheelwright was judged to be "like Roger Williams, or worse,"
and banished; Ann Hutchinson was banished; Coddington fled for
freedom to Rhode Island, where he became the first Governor; and
Vane sorrowfully withdrew to England. Edmund Quincy had
died a year or so before. Had he lived,' he would have shared the
fate of his friends.

LATER QUINCY MANSION
Sketch by Miss Quincy, 1822

SH:

:gi

\ J^l'i^l^

EDWARD H. AN(;iEK

43
JUDITH QUINCY, the widow of Edmund, married Moses
Paine. After his death, in 1643, she entered into the occupancy
of the Coddington farm-house. Later her son Edmund, who
married Joanna Hoar in 1648, came into full possession of the
homestead. By Joanna he had eleven children, and by the widow
Eliot three more. These intermarried with the Savils, Hobarts,
Savages, Gookins, Hunts, Bakers; and Daniel married Hannah
Shepard, who bore Colonel John Quincy, from whom the city is
named, and Edmund married Dorothy Flynt, the mother of all the
Dorothys. As need was. Colonel Edmund built him a new house
in 1685. Judge Sewall, under date of March 22, 1685-6, enters
in his diary, "Lodged in the lower room of Unkle Quinsy's new
house." This was the structure which, up to about ten years ago, stood
a little to the south of the homestead, and was called the farm-house.

CHRIST CHURCH

HE Quincy Homestead, as we now see it, was built
during the life of the third Edmund Quincv. The
date of its erection is thus set down by John Marshall
in his diary, "June 14-, 1706, we raised Mr. Quincy's
house." The old house which Coddington built was
incorporated with this new structure. It was an
achievement for the carpenters of those days, done by plain rule of
thumb; and thus ample spaces are provided for "secret chambers,"
numerous closets of oddest shapes, curious shiplike lockers, and for
similar entrancing conveniences.

JUDGE EDMUND QUINCY

"POROTHY Q.'

45
AN event of the first importance soon distinguished the new
mansion. "Dorothy Q.," "my Dorothy," as Dr. Oliver
Wendell Holmes calls her, was born in it, Jan. 4, 1709.
She was the fourth child. She grew to beautiful womanhood, was
"well spoken of by everybody," and on the 7th of December,
1738, married Edward Jackson, Esq., of Boston. Their daughter
Mary married Judge Oliver Wendell in 1762, to whom was born
Sarah, who married the Rev. Abiel Holmes, the father of the poet.
Along this line came down the portrait of Dorothy, made famous
by Holmes's poem.
The story of the painting is told by Dr. Holmes, as follows : —
"The painting hung in the house of my grandfather, Oliver Wen
dell, which was occupied by British officers before the evacuation
of Boston. One of these gentlemen amused himself by stabbing
poor Dorothy (the pictured one) as near the right eye as his swords
manship would serve him to do it. The canvas was so decayed that
it became necessary to remount the painting, in the process of doing
which the hole made by the rapier was lost sight of. I took some
photographs of the picture before it was transferred to the new
canvas." " Grandmother's mother: her age, I guess,
Thirteen summers, or something less;
Girlish bust, but womanly air;
Smooth, square forehead with uprolled hair;
Lips that lover has never kissed;
Taper fingers and slender wrist;
Hanging sleeves of stiff brocade;
So they painted the little maid.
" On her hand a parrot green
Sits unmoving and broods serene.
Hold up the canvas full in view, —
Look! there's a rent the hght shines through,
Dark with a century's fringe of dust, —
That was a Red-coat's rapier-thrust!
Such is the tale the lady old,
Dorothy's daughter's daughter, told.

46
Judge Quincy, the father of Dorothy, was a distinguished man
in his day, and passed almost his whole life in the public service.
His domestic establishment was ample, and his hospitality unlim
ited. For his wife's brother. Tutor Flynt, he built the two-story
L on the north side of the homestead. The tutor was a bachelor, —
scholarly, original, and witty, — but at times he fell into "a hypochon-
drial disorder ' ' ; and on the floor of his study tradition points out a
depression worn by him as he walked forward and back in black,
restless mood. The judge passed away in London, where he went
to defend before the king the cause of Massachusetts in the boundary
dispute between that colony and New Hampshire. His two sons,
Edmund and Josiah, had removed to Boston; but both eventually
returned to the place of their birth. Josiah, the younger, who mar
ried Hannah Sturgis, took up his residence in the Hancock parson
age; and Edmund entered into possession of the homestead.
IHIS Edmund Quincy, the fourth, was the father of
the "Dorothy Q." who married John Hancock. The
homestead, from the time of the first "Colonel,"
was full of life, but now it rose to flood-tide.
Edmund had five daughters, all " remarkable for their
beauty." Around them fluttered the beaux in multi
tudes. Eventually, Samuel Sewall won Elizabeth; General William
Greenleaf, Sarah; Judge Jonathan Sewall, Esther; and John Han
cock, Dorothy. Across the way, in the Hancock parsonage, lived
Josiah Quincy, whose children were : Samuel, who rose to be solici
tor-general; Josiah, Jr., who gained the title of "the Patriot";
and Hannah, to whom John Adams was about to propose when he
retreated, to the delight of Dr. Bela Lincoln. Near by, at Mount
Wollaston, was the home of Colonel John Quincy. His grand
daughter, Abigail Smith, who became the wife of John Adams,
was a frequent member of his household. Thus we have one of
the most remarkable circles of youth and beauty, culture and ambi
tion and patriotism, which at that time might be gathered in New
England. Lively is the account John Adams gives us of it, and it
centred in the Quincy Homestead.

47

DOROTHY was the youngest of Edmund's children. When
it was that Hancock won her consent to marriage, we have
no means of knowing. Tradition says his troth was plighted
while she was still living in the homestead. The large north parlor was
adorned with a new wall paper express from Paris, and appropri
ately figured with the forms of Venus and Cupid in blue and pend
ant wreaths of flowers in red. Does any one doubt the tradition .''
Thez'e on the wall hangs the paper to this day, unfading in its an
tiquity and mutely confounding the incredulous.
Before the happy day arrived, however, the family was dispersed
by the breaking out of the Revolution. Dorothy found refuge
first in Lexington, and finally at the home
of Thaddeus Burr, in Fairfield, Conn.
Here, on Aug. 28, 1775, John Hancock
and Dorothy Quincy were united in mar
riage. After the Revolution the ancient home
of the Quincys passed into other hands.
It was mortgaged to Edward Jackson.
Then it was bought by Moses Black,
next by Elizabeth Greenleaf, and, finally,
it came into the possession of Dr. Ebenezer
Woodward. By him it was bequeathed
to the town of Quincy for the support of
the Woodward Institute for Girls. It was during the forty years
or more the town authorities held the estate in trust that it was
occupied by the Hon. Peter Butler. Filled once more was the home
stead with life and in its appointments fitted out in harmony with
its best traditions. In memory of Mr. and Mrs. Butler, their son
Sigourney and a daughter, the room, reserved by Coddington for
his especial accommodation, is set apart and furnished appropriately.
Later the estate was acquired by the Adams Trust Company, from
whom the mansion and about two acres of land were purchased
by the Rev. Daniel M. Wilson, minister of the old First Church,
who lived in it till he was called to Brooklyn, N.Y. Recently
the Metropolitan Park Commission, aided by the Massachusetts

LAST CHILD BORN IN THE
HOMESTEAD

WILLIAM R BATEMAN

DR. NATHANIEL S. HUNTING

49
Society of Colonial Dames, bought the Homestead and added it to the
Furnace Brook Parkway. The Commissioners then leased it to the
Dames, by whom it has been most sympathetically and intelli
gently restored within and without. Many persons have con
tributed and loaned old-time furniture and utensils, pictures
and clothing, so that entering the homestead seems like stepping
into another age, that of the original " Colonial Dames." A competent
and courteous care-taker has been put in charge, and the homestead is
now open to the view of the public.
The Quincy Mansion at the "lower farm," now Wollaston, built in

PROFILE OF SQUAW ROCK

1770, stands for that line of the Quincys which traces its descent,
not from sire to son, but, as it was wittily said, from 'Siah to 'Siah.
With it the reign of Josiahs began. The line of Edmunds came
to an end with the father of Dorothy Hancock. None of his three
sons had a male heir. His younger brother Josiah alone was left,
he and his children, to continue the name of Quincy. But in this
line none of the higher qualities of the race were found wanting,
the Josiahs in their several generations upholding the honor and
ability of the Quincy name magnificently. His son, Josiah, Jr.,
was so zealous in the cause of his country that he was barely

A QUARRY OF THE GRANITE RAILWAY CO.

A QUARRY OF THE QUINCY QUARRIES CO.

51
thirty-one years of age when he wore himself out. To his son,
another Josiah, he left a slight bequest with this prayer, ' 'May the
spirit of liberty rest upon him!"
THE Josiah upon whom "the Patriot" breathed that brief but
eloquent prayer rose to be one of the most eminent of the
Quincys. He was a State Senator; a member of Congress,
attaining the leadership of the Federal party; Mayor of Boston for
six years, earning the title of "Great Mayor"; President of Harvard
for sixteen years; author of a History of Boston, of the Boston
Athenaeum, of Harvard, and of much besides. He was born in
Boston, — and his residence was chiefly there and in Cambridge, —
but he spent his summers in Quincy, and there he died July 1, 1864.
Still another Josiah, the eldest son of President Quincy, forged to
the front in public life. He, too, became Mayor of Boston. He was
distinguished as a railroad man, and for his interest in the most pro
gressive ideas of the time, commercial, social, and moral. In his
later years he lived altogether in Quincy, a member of that delightful
household which included his three unmarried sisters, Eliza Susan,
Abby Phillips, and Sophia M. How pleasant are the reminiscences
of the gracious hospitalities of that home, with its old-time atmosphere
and its anecdotes of the great men of the past! The "happy life"
had certainly fallen to them. They declared, unreservedly, that
they had lived in the best age of the world, among the best people
in the world, and in some of the best places in the world. "Tranquil-
la" Dr. Channing named this home and its surroundings.
In the next generation Josiah P. Quincy, a son of the Josiah who
was distinguished as a "railroad man," built still another mansion.
This is the fine building which has been transformed into the " Quincy
Mansion School" for girls. Its doors, like those of its predecessors,
stood wide open to men of talent, to the leaders in thought and
reform, to all eminent for their intelligence and public spirit. Here
was born and bred his son Josiah, Mayor of Boston from 1895 to
1898. The Quincys have now all withdrawn to Boston and elsewhere.
For the first time since the town was named there are no Quincys
of Quincy.

52
RAINTREE and Quincy, — their men and their hills, —
their scions and their syenite : the first have furnished
some of the ablest hands by which our Revolution
was achieved; the last has supplied the materials of
the proudest monuments by which it will be com
memorated." Thus Hon. R. C. Winthrop toasted
the town at the second centennial of its ancient in
corporation. The men and the monuments! Whenever Quincy is
mentioned, these fill the imagination. Our First Church is called
the " Church of Statesmen " ; our community, the " City of Presidents,"
often the "Granite City." Men first: let that be emphasized! Men,
chiefly, give fame and value to town or city. The "City of Presi
dents," that is our unrivalled title.
THE granite industry is, nevertheless, important. As early as
1749 this granite was utilized, but at that date only surface
boulders were broken up and wrought into shape. King's
Chapel in Boston was built of this material, and it was thought to be
so limited in quantity that the town became alarmed, and by vote for
bade its further removal until otherwise ordered. Later, however,
enough was secured to construct the famous old Hancock mansion
on Beacon Hill.
W^hen at last, in 1803, it was discovered that by the use of wedges
the obdurate material might be split into almost any shape and size,
"the crust of the hills was broken," and Bunker Hill monument
became a possibility.
To facilitate the transportation of the hewn blocks for the Bunker
Hill monument, a railway was built, the first in the country. It was
laid from quarry to tide water, some two miles, and the first cars,
drawn by horses, ran Oct. 7, 1826. From that time onward the
granite business rapidly increased. There are now about 140 firms
engaged in it, which employ in the neighborhood of 2,000 men.
The quarries worked number about 25, the plants in which cut
ting and polishing are done about 40, and those in which polish
ing alone is done about 10. Not far from a million dollars are
invested in the entire industry.

WATER FRONT OF THE FORE RIVER SHIP-BUILDING CO.

54
^ HIPBUILDING and shipping are natural and pic
turesque enterprises of Quincy. One argument used
by the inhabitants of the North Precinct of Braintree,
when they petitioned to be set off in a town by them
selves, was that because of their long extent of sea-
coast their character and habits of life would naturally
take a maritime cast. In the past its inhabitants did
go down to the great deep. Still, "the maritime cast" is not now
obtrusively conspicuous. For genuine "old salts" we resort to the
"National Sailors' Home" and to the "Sailors' Snug Harbor".

It was in 1696 that the first vessel was built in what is now Quincy.
In 1789, the old "Massachusetts" was launched, — the largest vessel
for that day,— eight hundred tons. Another vessel of note was the
barque Mt. Wollaston, built for Edward Cruft about 1820. John
Adams took considerable interest in her construction, and, it is said
that her timbers were hewn on land he owned.

CLIPPER SHIP, " RED CLOUD"

BATTLE-SHIP " RHODE ISLAND " LEAVING FORE RIVER

56
Deacon George Thomas built most of these craft. He came
from Rockland, Me., in 1854, and in that year built his first ship,
the "King Philip." His last ship, the "Red Cloud," was launched
in 1877. No other wooden vessel of any consequence has since been
built in Quincy.
GREAT as were the activities in the way of shipbuilding in the
Quincy of the past, what were they as compared with those of
the present! We are hardly over our first astonishment at
the rapid rise of the Fore River Shipbuilding Company. What an
astounding fulfilment is this of the prophecy of John Adams, that our
seaboard would some day be the scene of a great development of
maritime industry! The company is now engaged in "the construc
tion of its one hundredth and fortieth hull." And such "hulls!"
They include the "New Jersey" and "Rhode Island," first-class
battleships, 15,000 tons each; the "Vermont," 16,000 tons; to say
nothing of the seven-masted steel schooner "T. W. Lawson," the
six-masted steel schooner "Wm. L. Douglas," ten-thousand-ton
freight and passenger steamers, protected cruisers, whole fleets of
torpedo boats, submarines, car floats, oil barges, and other levia
thans of the deep. Some four thousand men are employed. Every
thing about a ship is made here, — hulls and engines, woodwork and
steel work. A walk through the immense shops reveals miracles
wrought upon iron, steel, and wood by automatic machinery, great
blast furnaces, and the brawny arms of swart workmen. Admiral
Francis T. Bowles is president of the company; H. G. Smith, man
ager; J. A. Sedgwick, treasurer; Samuel Tupper MacQuarrie, clerk.
In enumerating the many advantages of Quincy, one cannot help
asking, "Is there any other community in the State more highly
favored.''" Its population is over 30,000 now; it may be over
40,000 in a decade. An influential "Citizens Association" is guiding
this growth, — president, Henry L. Kincaide; vice-president, Russel
A. Sears; secretary, Charles H. Burgess; treasurer, Nathan G. Nick-
erson. These point out the rare advantages for almost any industry
afforded by Quincy's water and railway facilities. Indeed, this region

CLARENCE BURGIN

GEORGE E. PFAFFMANN

58

•early became noted among the towns of Massachusetts for its manu
factures. There was the iron works established in 1643, and the
glass works and the stocking weaving by General Joseph Palmer in
1752, and the coach lace business by Wilson Marsh, and the shoe
business, Noah Curtis in 1794 being one of the pioneers of it, and the
Whichers and Drakes carrying it on in these later years. Now there
is to be added such flourishing establishments as the Tubular Rivet
and Stud Company, which, like a tree, shows annually its ring of
growth, and the Translucent Fabric Company, and the Boston Gear
Works, and the Wollaston Foundry, and more besides.

POWER STATK)N, MASSACHUSETTS ELECTRIC COMPANIES

iHE electrical plants which have sprung up in Quincy
constitute a most distinctive feature in the city's in
dustrial progress. The power station of the Massa
chusetts Electric Companies at the Point is the
largest and finest equipped establishment of the kind
in the State. To nearly all of the lines controlled by
this company (a total of 871 miles, serving eighty-eight towns and
cities, aggregating a population of 1,639,875) it furnishes a high ten
sion alternating system. Its magnificent steam turbine engines sup
ply 15,000 horse power.

59
THE Quincy Electric Light and Power Company is wholly a
local institution, built up by local enterprise and stimulating
to local pride. Established in 1882, when electric develop
ments were in their infancy, the company grew with the growth of
the town. In 1902 the old plant with all its machinery was discarded,
and an entirely new building erected at a convenient point on Town
River. It is equipped with the finest directly connected units of a
total capacity of 2,000 horse power. Situated, as it is, near the busi
ness centre of the city, and with the chance to expand at the demand
of an increasing population, it is fitted to give the very best service.

^Seass^

QUINCY ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY

THE benevolent and charitable deeds of the residents of Quincy
have never been lacking in aid of the distressed among them.
The Fragment Society, formed in First Church, has for fifty
years clothed the naked without regard to their denominational rela-

60
tions. Its president is Mrs. Thomas Fenno, its secretary Mrs. E. B.
Marsh. For about as long a time the Quincy Charitable Society has
given food and fuel to the needy. Its power to do good has been greatly
increased by the gift of $10,000 by the late Elias A. Perkins. The
Rev. Edward Norton is president, and Mrs. Helen L. Bass is treas
urer. The faithful secretary for more than thirty years, Mrs. C. A.
Spear, has been lately succeeded by Mrs. Thomas A. Addison. All
the helpful service rendered by these and kindred organizations is
re-enforced by the wise benefaction of Professor Jeffrey R. Brackett.
He has given the fine "Brackett House," formerly the home of his
father, to a charitable trust which leases it without charge to the
"Quincy Women's Club." The objects of this club are social and
humanitarian. The officers of the club are: president, Mrs. E. C.
Bumpus; recording secretary, Mrs. John W. Sanborn; correspond
ing secretary, Mrs. Wilson Marsh; treasurer, Miss Annie L. Prescott.
THIC parks and park- ways of Quincy are by no means the least
of her advantages. True foresight, as well as public spirit,
were manifested by Charles Francis Adams, the younger,
when he gave Merry-Mount Park to the city in 1885. To-day its
eighty-nine acres of beautifully diversified shore land are appreciated
by all. This was not the case a little before 1885, when the obstruc
tionists were in such force that a vote could not be obtained in town
meeting to buy at a low price this desirable property. It was on top
of this refusal and the disregard of his sagacious arguments that
Mr. Adams himself bought the land, and bestowed it upon his fellow-
citizens, — a most magnanimous act. It is a natural park. The com
missioners who have been so careful to conserve its best features —
George E. Pfaffmann, Fred B. Rice, Dexter E. Wadsworth — ^have
done little more than follow the leadings of nature.
Faxon Park is another large breathing-space which has been given
to the city. It was carved out of the homestead on which Henry H.
Faxon was born, and given by that ardent reformer to his native
town. It is situated on the side of Penn's Hill, picturesque in its
ledges, desirable in the wide views it affords, and convenient to a part
of the town which is becoming quite thickly settled.

HENRY L. EMERY

BRACKETT HOUSE-QUINCY^ AVOMEN'S CLUB

62
OF all our helpful institutions few may outrank the No-License
vote, now overwhelmingly cast for 24 years! It is another
"Quincy system" keeping clean the ways of the city, for
which we^ are especially indebted to Henry H. Faxon. He still lives
in the renewed devotion of the No-License Committee and of Miss
Eva M. Brown, his faithful secretary for years.

BETHANY CHURCH

ST. JOHN'S CHURCH

THE Quincy City Hospital, the gift of the Hon. William B. Rice,
rounds out magnificently the philanthropic institutions of the
City of Presidents. Dr. John A. Gordon, who first broached
the idea of a hospital for Quincy, and who labored so tirelessly in the
beginning of things, is still one of the consulting physicians. Since
its organization Mr. Rice has been president of the Board of Trustees,
and Mr. Timothy Reed secretary. The Hospital Aid Association,
a ladies' society, of which Mrs. Joseph C. Morse is president, Mrs.
Alice D. Sanborn, secretary and Mrs. Thomas Fenno, treasurer,
is instrumental in promoting interest in the hospital and in directing
into practical channels the sympathy and gifts of the people.

63
ABOUT 34 churches earnestly labor to re-enforce the moral and
spiritual elements of the community. Christ Church, Rev. W.
E. Gardner, rector, is the place of worship of the oldest
Episcopalian society in New England. It Avas formally organized
in 1701, and was the church of Governor Shirley, the Vassalls, Mil
lers, Borlands, Apthorps. In 1828, mass was celebrated for the first
time in Quincy, in the presence of a number of Catholics, at West
Quincy. This led to the building of St. Mary's Church in 1842, and
St. John's, which has grown to be the largest, in 1853. The Univer-
salists had services here as early as 1830, and in 1832 they erected an
edifice. The Rev. W. S. Perkins, D.D. is their present pastor. Beth
any Church (Evangelical Congregational), which has long been one of
the largest religious societies in the community, was organized in 1832.
Its pastor is the Rev. E. N. Hardy. The other churches are of
much later growth.

QUINCY MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY

WITH all these institutions go the uplifting influences of the
Public Library, — the people's college. In the old days
there was a "Quincy Social Library," which was "owned
by a number of proprietors, and intended for a circulating library. "^
About the year 1870, the late Charles A. Foster aroused interest in the

64

project of a pub
lic library. Nine
years later Mrs.
Thomas Crane and
her two sons, in
memory of Thom
as Crane, gave to
the town Crane
Memorial Hall for
the uses of a pub
lic library. It was
designed by H. H.
Richardson.

CRANE MEMORIAL HALL

AVATER TOWER ON FORBES HILL

Quincy is included in the Met
ropolitan District, shares the ad
vantages of the Metropolitan
Park System, Sewer System,
Water System. In short, it is an
inseparable part of that magnifi
cent Metropolis, central in Boston
and ultimately to extend in a
ten-mile circuit on every side of
contiguous homes and commer
cial and manufacturing estab
lishments. This is symbolized
in the beautiful water tower
which crowns Forbes Hill, which
is easily the finest thing of its kind
in the State. May Quincy, al
though incorporated within the
Metropolitan District, never be
lost in it, but rejoice forever in
the distinction of its historical
persons and places, its stately
homes, its noble natural features !

I ~ .- - J i-*H i Z-' acBrtS^SSs ' ' ^|'j»i7 4 sWiV<n^'> "

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