! ATTENTION ! BARCODE IS ON NEXT PAGE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/weymouthwaysweymOOhunt_0 TKIleigmoutb ma^s anD meigmoutb people. REMINISCENCES BY EDMUND SOPER HUNT BOSTON PRIVATELY PRINTED 1907. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES PRINTED, Library Allen County Public 900 Webster Street I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME OF REMINISCENCES TO MY GOOD WIFE. — CONTENTS. CHAPTER I " " In the Thirties : — Introduction — My School Days — The Olden Times — Thanksgiving — Business — From the Arnold Tavern down Commercial Street — Along Front Street — Garfield Square — Pond Meadow and Nantasket Music in the Union Church and the Union Singing Society — Revivals — In East Braintree — My First School-house — The Old Toll-house — Col. Minot Thayer's Farm —My Home — Business Men of the Village — My Books and Library 9-6 4 CHAPTER II In the "Forties": — The Harrison Campaign — The Cold Water Army — Abolitionists — Fires and Fire Engines — The Band — Business — Windmills — Dances — Manufac- turing — Jour. Tramps — Petition for Railroad — Flying Machines — Tilden's Launching — Politics and Postmas- ters — The Old Amazon and its Trials — The Forty-Niners — New Doctors — The Old Union Bank — Henry Clay . 65-99 CHAPTER III In the "Fifties": — The Year 1850 — Political Events — Kossuth — Fugitive Slave Law — Changes in the Village — World's Fair of 1853 — Noted Lecturers — Anthony Burns — The Know-Nothings — The Marshfield Fair — Free- masonry — Gen. Banks — Sumner and Brooks — The Kan- sas Crusade — Town Officers in 1854 — My Own Business — My First Fireworks 1 00- 3 8 1 CHAPTER IV " " In the Sixties : — The Election of Lincoln — Outbreak of the Civil War — Enlistments in the Old Town Hall — At the Weymouth Fairs — Muff and Tom — Purchase of Prince — Manufacture of Fans 139-152 6 Contents. CHAPTER V In the "Seventies": — Financial Troubles — My Invention of a Life-saving Projectile — Exhibition in Mechanics' Fair, 1878 — Invention of the Colored Shell and Sun Wheel — Lieut. Lyle's Visit — My Trip to England — Observations in London — Bedford Park — Whitehall Palace — St. Paul's Cathedral — Temple Bar — Whitechapel — At Greenwich — Billingsgate — At Faversham — A Shipwreck at Tyne- mouth — Testing the Hunt Projectile at Shoeburyness — Return in 1880 153-188 CHAPTER VI " " In the Eighties : — At Nauset — Displays of Fireworks at Nantasket — Visit to New Orleans — Southern Cities — My Projectile and the Final Test at Nantucket — Last Letter from Mr. Crowninshield 189-202 CHAPTER VII Miscellaneous Events: — Religious Societies — The Sab- bath — Old North Meeting House — Organization of Uni- versalist Church — The Old Account Book — Occupations — May Training — How to Celebrate Old Home Week — "Truth"— Reply to "Truth"— Comments on Newspaper Clippings — The Amazons and the Tigers — Business at the Landing — Mothers' Meetings — The Lawrences — Our High School — Natural Beauty of Our Village — History of Weymouth — Address of Charles Francis Adams — His Errors — What an Old Man Can Do — What a Young Man Can Do — The Professions — Utopia — Fine Old Elms — At the Opera — Our Great Novelists — The Old Hunt Burying Ground — Nathan W. Dickerman — Gover- nor Boutwell and Senator Hoar — Occupations for Women — Manufacturing Fire Crackers — Old-time Musicians — The Great Ship Canal — Our State Flower — Civil Service in Utopia — My Dog Rab — Memorial Day, 1905 — How to Grow Roses 203-285 CHAPTER VIII Ancestral Gleanings: — Origin of the Hunt Family — Col. William Hunt — My Search in Old Duxbury — A Strange Occurrence — The Return of Deacon Ebenezer Hunt . 286-295 Addenda 296 Index of Names 297-307 FOREWORD. HAVE written down, from time to time, during the past few years, my reminiscences of the old days of Weymouth, and of the towns-people of sixty years ago and more, which are included in this volume together with other letters, mostly printed in the Weyfnotith Gazette, on different phases of life such as prevailed here, and perhaps were a fair example of New England village life in the early years of the century. Humor has carried me in many paths, but as the truth has appeared to me so I have taken pleasure in writing it down for the edification, I trust the benefit, of my towns-people, and perhaps for the assist- ance of some future historian who would find these data of service. Outside of some valuable papers in my father's possession, a fev/ old store books, and other data of less importance, I have had nothing to aid me save my own memories of seventy years. How easy it would be for the historian — the writer of town history especially — had our fathers been thoughtful of the future 8 Foreword. in preserving for us, in written form, the true history of the early days in the Colonies, — the true story of the life of the people then. As for Weymouth, there is a blank of one hundred and fifty years, or from shortly after the permanent settlement — say 1635 — to the end of the Revolution, in which time there are absolutely no records of the town or people, and mention of. Weymouth is but rarely made. Now and then there may be a record of a land trans- fer, or a soldier or two drawn from the town, — nothing else. If my effort should inspire autobiographies, from which histories are made, by oldest residents and others, then these few sketches of Weymouth Landing and its people will not have been penned in vain. E. S. H. REMINISCENCES. Chapter I. In the "Thirties." WAS born on Front street, Weymouth, July 19, 1827. The house (now 76 Front street) is the most interesting of all in the village to me. My father, Major Elias Hunt, occupied the south side of the house, and his brother, William Hunt, who died Sept. 24, 1822, lived in the north side. At the time of my birth, his son, Elbridge Gerry Hunt, occupied the north side of this fine old house. Here I lived until I was four years old, when my father removed to his new house, now 175 Front street, and owned by Mr. James T. Pease. After father removed from my birth- place, it was occupied by Mr. Adoniram Bowditch, whose wife was my cousin, Charlotte Hunt. I enjoyed visiting at cousin Charlotte's better than at any other place, for a better soul never lived than she. My father was married in September, 1820, in Cambridge, Mass., by the Rev. Abiel Holmes, D. D., father of the poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes. My mother, Eliza Maria Theresa Soper, daughter of Major Edmund Soper, of Braintree, came to the home on Front street, where the wedding reception was held, and where our family lived till 1831. - TO Reminiscences . My recollections of the olden times in my native village, together with some of the most interesting events of a long and active business life, I propose to bring together in this volume, believing that it will not be uninteresting to future generations of those who chance to live in Weymouth. My school days in the "thirties " were passed in the old school house (then newly built) on Front street. Of the boys who attended school at that time, few besides myself are alive to- day. Of those boys and girls I remember, none were other than native born ; their fathers and mothers having always lived in the vicinity of Weymouth, they were descendants of the old Pilgrim-Puritan stock. At that time the school was called the Fourth District, which included most of the territory of Ward III of to-day, and all were accommodated in this two-roomed school-house. The children began and completed their education here with- out the aid of a high school. The boys were a motley-looking lot, compared with the boys now. Then money was scarce and clothes were dear, and dress counted for nothing. Some from Back (now Summer) street wore simply smock-frocks, made of coarse blue stuff, gathered at the neck with a string. Green bocking jackets were called pretty fine, and few could afford them. For head-gear, a coarse sealskin cap was worn by many. These were good old democratic days (Jacksonian), and as none had ever then seen better times, all were content. Of my teachers, I remember well Miss Seymour, from Hingham ; Miss Emeline Merritt, from South Weymouth, and Miss Boynton, from Scituate, who were favorites with the school children ; then came Miss Lucy J. Chipman, who on June 4, 1842, became the wife of my cousin, Richard A. Hunt, late of Front street. These teachers taught school in the room on the first floor, while the room above was occupied by a male teacher. ! ! In the Thirties!' II The man I remember best was John Hatherly Foster. He came from a good Scituate family, and was a born teacher. The boy or girl he could not teach could not be taught. Mr. Foster came to the school fully equipped for his work. He had several pieces of apparatus to demonstrate what he taught. A table stood in front of his desk, which was covered with apparatus. How well I remember the electrical machine with its Leyden jar, the air-pump, the air-gun, and a large globe These are common to-day in all public schools, but in my school days they were the first that my schoolmates or myself had seen, and great interest was created to know their uses. The boys could never forget that Leyden jar, with its bright button at the top and chain by its side. Few escaped an electric shock from it. As an instrument of torture many had a practical demon- stration of its use daily. This Leyden jar was always charged ready for the mischievous, and woe betide the boy that the master saw whispering ; for Mr.