Dorchester Illustration no. 2422 Enoch Train
The digital image of the portrait of Enoch Train was recently provided by a family descendant. The illustration of his house is from a period after he had sold the property.
Enoch Train purchased land on the south side of Centre Street in 1840 and in 1846, comprising more than 7 acres. As the property was subdivided, the portion with the main house was later owned by Charles Whitten, a property developer, and later still by the Charles J. Douglas Sanatoriuim before being purchased by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston. The 1933 map shows that the Seraphic Institute was housed there; now it is the St. Joseph Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.
The following comes from Some Ships of the Clipper Ship Era: Their Builders, Owners, and Captains. (Boston: State Street Trust Company, 1913).
Enoch Train was the foremost among the merchant ship-owners of his day, and at one time owned the largest number of ships of any firm in Boston, thirty or more of his vessels plying between this port and Liverpool. Having been brought up in the hide and leather store of his uncle, Samuel Train, his earliest ventures after he went into shipping on his own account were in the Russian and South American trades, importing principally hides.
A few years later, in 1844, he established the well-known Train line of packets to Liverpool, the first ship built being the “Joshua Bates,” named after the American partner of Baring Brothers at that time. This vessel was built for him at Newburyport by the celebrated ship-builder, Donald McKay. Mr. Train was so much pleased with this first vessel and with the skill of the builder that on the day she was launched he said to McKay, “You must come to Boston; we need you, and if you want any financial assistance in establishing a shipyard let me know, the amount and you shall have it.”
The rest is too well known to repeat. In rapid succession were launched the “Anglo Saxon;” “Anglo American,” “Washington Irving,” ”Ocean Monarch,” “Parliament,” “Star of the Empire,” “Chariot of Fame,” “Staffordshire,” “Cathedral,” and “John Eliot Thayer.” The “Staffordshire ” was lost at sea not far from this coast and many passengers were lost. It is stated that there were so few boats and panic-stricken people clung so desperately to the gunwales of the rowboats that one of the officers was obliged to chop off their fingers with a hatchet in order to save even a few of the passengers.
Another ship, the ”Ocean Monarch,” was bullied at sea with a loss of four hundred lives, and George Francis Train, a representative of the firm, in an account of his life, describes the pathetic scene he witnessed when the news was first announced in Boston. It was customary for the captain of each inward-bound vessel as she approached her dock to shout from the rail the latest news. On this occasion the “Persia” under Captain Judkins was about to dock, and hundreds of people were waiting to hear tidings of some friend or vessel. The captain shouted the sad fate of the “Ocean Monarch'” and within a few minutes the announcement was made in the Merchants Exchange.
The Train firm on another occasion believed the “Gov. Davis,” which ran on their Boston, New Orleans, Liverpool triangular route, had also been burned at sea, as word was received that “The ‘Gov. Davis’ is burned up.” While those in the counting-house were grieving over their losses of friends and cargo, another message was handed to them, changing the message to “The ‘Gov. Davis’ is bound up.” The vessel was safe in Boston Harbour and there was great rejoicing in the Train office. Another ship belonging to the firm, called “Break of Day,” came into Boston Harbour on a winter’s day without a spar standing. “The Chariot of Fame” was Train’s favorite vessel, her master being Captain Knowles. She had a reading-room on her quarter-deck for cabin passengers, a great luxury in those days.
Donald McKay also built for Mr. Train the “Flying Cloud,” “Empress of the Seas,” “Plymouth Rock,” which was half-owned by George B. Upton, and the “Lightning.” Some of Train’s captains were Caldwell, Thayer, Murdock, Brown, Richardson, Howard, and Knowles.
In 1855 the Boston & European Steamship Company was incorporated, with Enoch Train; George B. Upton, Donald McKay, Andrew T. Hall, and James M. Beebe as sponsors, “for the purpose of navigating the ocean by steam.” The plan was to build a splendid line of steamers, rivalling in every respect the well-known Collins line of New York, the English port to be Milford Haven in Wales.
“There is a vast difference,” he said, “between steam and sailing vessels,” and steam would not interfere with his regular business, the transportation of coarse and weighty commodities, and passengers who could not afford the luxury of steam passage. A large committee was appointed, but the panic of 1857 put a stop to all plans.
Frederic W. Thayer, a partner at one time of Mr. Train, established an office in Liverpool. Later he and Mr. George Warren formed a partnership under the name of Thayer & Warren, succeeding to the business of Enoch Train & Co. At a still later date the name was changed again to the well-known firm of Warren & Co. This latter firm still flies the Train private signal, a red ground with a white diamond, and was one of the first houses to appreciate the commercial importance of iron screw steamers.
Enoch Train at first had his counting-house at 37 Lewis Wharf, and later, about 1852, he bought Constitution Wharf for the use of his ships, moving his private office to State Street.
The naming of Train Street appears to come from Enoch Train. He owned property bordering on Adams Street, stretching to Tenean Creek.