Colon €vitr ---------------------------------- U — ■ ■■■» The Newsletter of the Historical Society of Watertown 28 Marshall Street Watertown, MA 02472-3408 www.HistoricalSocietyofWatertownMA.org 617-923-6067 © All Rights Reserved Edmund Fowle House - 1772 April 201^ MERCY OTIS WARREN - ABOLITIONIST The following story was written by Historical for the Sons of Liberty and other duties associated Society of Watertown board member Mary Spiers. with the war effort. Mary is our Recording and Corresponding Secretary. I have to credit the blizzard of February, 2013 for the inspiration to pick up a copy of Snow-Bound ' y John Greenleaf Whittier and thereby find this ugget of historical gold on Mercy Otis Warren. I also utilized the library at the Massachusetts Historical Society to research Mercy's poems. Mercy Otis Warren, bom in 1728, who we think of today as ‘“the Conscience of the American Revolution" and a "Founding Mother,” is the graceful lady in the blue dress in the John Singleton Copley iconic portrait of her that hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. A copy hangs on the walls of the Edmund Fowle House, now home to the Historical Society of Watertown. This house was in 1775 a scene of much bustling activity as the seat of the provincial government during the outset of the War for Independence. Following the death of Dr. Joseph Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June. 1775, the title of President of the Massachusetts Copy of John Singleton Copley's portrait of Mercy Provincial Congress was succeeded to by attorney Otis Warren that hangs in the Edmund Fowle House James Warren whose Executive Council met at the Fowle House. The Legislative Body met in the near­ His actual farmstead was in Plymouth, set on by meeting house on the edge of the Common Street land familiar to his Mayflower ancestors and now- ^emetery. James Warren lived at the Fowle House as overseen by his wife and mother of his five sons. me would allow, that is. when he wasn't traveling Mercy Otis Warren. She would visit James in about as Paymaster General for General Watertown when she could. She like her husband had Washington's Continental Army or on an assignment been raised on Cape Cod with her father a circuit judge and wealthy merchant in West Barnstable. They lived in a mansion surrounded by acres of land was in great need of tender mercies. The poet with a foreman to manage an assemblage of farm writes:...''We sped the time with stories old. Wrought laborers including indentured servants, American puzzles out. and riddles told. Or stammered from our Indians and at least one African slave. Mercy was one school book lore '“The Chief of Gambia's golden of thirteen children, only seven of whom survived to shore." How often since, when all the land Was clay maturity. Her mother was Mary Allyne Otis, a great in Slavery's shaping hand. As if a trumpet stirred. granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Edward I've heard Dame Mercy Warren's rousing word: Dotey. With the loss of six infant siblings, Mercy found herself as first daughter, a key player in “Does not the voice of reason cry. running the household. Claim the first right which Nature gave, From the red scourge of bondage fly, Nor deign to live a burdened slave.'’ In the same way, her brother, the patriot James Otis, espoused a soul-stirring plea in his “The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved" in 1764: “...slavery is so ill and miserable an estate of man, and so directly opposite to the generous temper and courage of our nation, that ‘tis hard to be conceived that an Englishman, much less a gentleman, should plead for it." Perhaps it was the old rural New England custom of gathering together the field hands at the main meal in either the kitchen or the dining room that brought young Mercy into acquaintance with the less fortunate in her farm household. She came to know and appreciate early on what working together for the common good meant and she never forgot. Whittier, in turn, honored her yearning for the slave to breathe free. We in the present can see her better Copy of John Singleton Copley's portrait of James now thanks to Whittier, as more than just a brilliant Warren that hangs in the Edmund Fowle House thinker, but as a woman of history, clearly ahead of her time. During her lifetime, Mercy Otis Warren wrote and published many poems anonymously and in 1790 wrote a volume of poems and plays entitled Poems. In 2008, award-winning author Nancy Rubin Dramatic and Miscellaneous. In 1805 at the age of Stuart wrote a book drawn from the correspondence 77, she published her magnum opus, her three- of Mercy Otis Warren, much of it published for the volume, The History o f the Rise, Progress and first time. “The Muse of Termination of the American Revolution—the first the Revolution: The history of this event written by a woman. Secret Pen of Mercy One of Mercy Otis Warren's verses found its Otis Warren and the way into the work of Quaker abolitionist and poet, Founding of a Nation” John Greenleaf Whittier when he composed his is available for purchase memorable and much-loved poem Snowbound: A in stores for $28.95 Winter Idyl. She died in 1814 when the yet-to-be and at the Edmund Fireside Poet was only seven years of age. Yet there Fowle House for $23.95. was a common belief held by both and spanning time To purchase a copy and place: a respect for the dignity of man and a love please contact Joyce of freedom for all. When Whittier's poem was at 781-899-7239 published by Ticknor and Fields in 1866. our country or iovcekel fraol.com. 2 STEPHEN MUGAR father's store. In 1932, he opened his second store in Newtonville, and in 1937 expanded to Wellesley. (1901 - 1982) In 1948 they opened another store in Newtonville which was their first supermarket. Here, they used In October of 2005 the Friends of Mount the earliest microwave in the store's luncheonette. Auburn Cemetery and the Historical Society of Prior to this time, food markets were grocery Watertown joined together to give a guided tour of stores, the mom & pop corner store, the meat the gravesites of several notable people who once market, produce stands. They were small, cozy, and resided in Watertown. The lives of our Watertown provided personal attention: but most times you had notables were recalled by members of the Historical to go to several stores to shop. Food was not pre­ Society Council and Historical Society volunteers. packaged, and you asked the butcher for a pound of The following information was presented by the late lamb chops or ground beef. Life was slower then: Pam Pinsky, former Vice President of the Historical you waited while the butcher selected the meat, Society of Watertown. sought your approval, then prepared it. When you go to the supermarket, you buy meat that is pre-packaged in shrink wTap; your onions come in mesh string bags; items are unit- priced (e.g., a 13 ounce can of coffee is unit-priced per pound so that you can compare the value against other coffees packed in 12 ounce cans); when you check out. you can have your purchases packed in paper bags; and often times, your bags are put in boxes and sent out on conveyor belt. All o f these innovations that we take for granted were developed >y Stephen P. Mugar at 28 Mt. Auburn St., home of he original Star Market. Inside view o f Star Market on Mt. Auburn St. 1921 (Courtesy o f the Watertown Free Public Library) Over the years, the cousins developed the innovations mentioned above. Markets became self- serve, one-stop shopping, known as supermarkets. With DuPont, they developed pre-packaging for meats and fruits and vegetables, and the mesh string bags for onions. They worked with Union Paper Star Market on Mt. Auburn Street circa 1920 Bag Co. to develop stronger & larger paper bags. (Courtesy o f the Watertown Free Public Library) Because of the Mugars, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to mandate unit pricing. Stephen P. derMugardichian was born in For their employees, they had employee Karpert. Armenia, and immigrated to this country as benefits like profit sharing and time off for school: a very young child. In 1916. his father Sarkis Mugar in 1963 they were the first to build a store over the (the family shortened their name) bought a small Mass. Pike. market at 28 Mt. Auburn St. and called it Star Stephen was a great philanthropist. He loved Market. The family lived on Bartlett St. at the top of books and gave generously to Boston University's 'alfrey Hill. In 1922 Sarkis was killed in an and Northeastern's libraries. A building at the automobile accident, and Stephen, along with his Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts is cousin John, took over the management of his called Mugar Hall. The Armenian Library and 3 Museum of America is called the Mugar Building. THIRD GRADE BUS TOUR His son David is the primary force behind the annual Fourth of July concert and fireworks on the Esplanade. The building at 28 Mt. Auburn St. still stands, physically unchanged. Mr. Mugar*s gravesite at Mount Auburn Cemetery RECENT DONATIONS The Historical Society of Watertown has received several donations of artifacts this year, Third graders on the stairs at Town Hall including: From Richard L.