Dorchester Illustration 2610 Hebrew Home for the Aged
The top image, published in the Sept. 10, 1905, edition of the Boston Sunday Post, shows a house on Queen Street in Dorchester.
On Jan. 28, 1903, a small group of Orthodox Jews – five women and one man – created the Hebrew Moshav Zekainim Association. Its goal was to “establish a Home for the taking care of the old and infirm Jewish men and women in the City of Boston.” Two years later, “owing to the demand for a Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in our city, where the ritual of orthodoxy will be strictly adhered to,” the Association announced that it had purchased a building at 21 Queen St., Dorchester.
The Hebrew Ladies’ Home for the Aged Association raised $10,000 in charitable donations, to buy the mid-19th century home on 17,109 square feet of land. The house was described as a large wooden structure with a broad piazza, spacious rooms, surrounded by beautiful grounds in the form of a garden. The house was adapted to accommodate 45 men and women, and a room for worship on the lower floor. It opened its doors in September 1905 with 15 residents.
By 1910, a wooden addition had been built, and by 1918, a masonry extension was added (shown in the bottom image).
In 1956, ground was broken for a new facility at 1200 Centre St., Roslindale and on Sept. 22, 1963, more than 260 residents moved from 21 Queen St. to the new 475-bed residence. The name was officially changed from “Hebrew Home for Aged” to “Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged,” reflecting its new charter as a chronic care hospital and home “for aged and ill men and women of Boston who require nursing care.” (http://www.newbridgeonthecharles.com/body.cfm?id=70)
Today, the site on Queen Street is home to the Neighborhood House Charter School.
Dorchester Illustration 2609 Stedman Home on Savin Hill
One of the featured insets on the 1858 Map of Norfolk County is the “Residence of D. B. Stedman, Esq. Savin Hill, Dorchester.
Daniel B. Stedman was an importer of crockery and glass with a business address of 10 Summer Street, Boston. In 1855, Daniel’s wife, Miriam White Stedman, acquired land at the corner of Savin Hill Avenue and Grampian Way on the east side of Grampian Way. They built the home pictured in today’s illustration on the hill about 11 and 15 Grampian Way are located today. In 1866, the Stedmans acquired more land to the east, extending their property all the way to Caspian Way.
The 1870 U.S. Census listed a large number of people living in the house.
Daniel, 53, and Miriam, 47
Daniel B. Stedman, Jr., 30
Susan L. Stedman, 30
Edward M. Stedman, 25
Josiah Stedman, 21
George Stedman, 20
George Stedman, 20
Theodore M. Stedman, 17
Arthur W. Stedman, 15
Georgianna Stedman, 10
Julia Hicks, 36, domestic servant
Nellie Mullen, 36, domestic servant
Mary Coughlin, 26, domestic servant
Daniel B. Stedman, 3d, 4
Robert L. Stedman, 2
Henry R. Stedman, 1
The house was taken down between 1894 and 1898, when the estate was subdivided into house lots.
The Free Home for Consumptives was located on the north side of Quincy Street and occupied the land now taken up by the cul-de-sac Fernald Terrace and its houses. . It was free to “all poor consumptives, of every nationality, creed, and color where no pay patients are admitted.” )The Dorchester Beacon, December 21, 1901). Elizabeth A. Power founded the Free Home for Consumptives at Quincy and served as its president for many years. (Obituary in The Boston Globe, February 3, 1924).
The top illustration is from a card appealing for donations. The lower illustration is a copy of a postcard published by J.V. Hartman & Co., Boston, Mass.
Roger Clap was one of the Dorchester settlers who arrived on the ship Mary and John in 1630. The ship dropped anchor off Nantasket, because the captain was not familiar with Boston harbor. The settlers traveled overland from Nantasket until they found a good place to live at what is now Dorchester. In the meantime, Roger Clap and a group of men set off in a small boat to explore. They sailed north around the Shawmut peninsula and up the Charles River to Watertown.
Today’s illustration is a photograph of a bronze plaque erected by the Historical Society of Watertown in 1947. Another plaque describes the scene depicted using words from Roger Clap’s Memoirs:
Here landed Roger Clap and the Dorchester men, June, 1630.
We went up Charles River, until the river grew narrow and shallow, and there we landed our goods with much labor and toil, the bank being steep. And night coming on, we were informed that there were hard by us three hundred Indians. One Englishman that could speak the Indian language, (an old Planter), went to them and advised them not to come near us in the night, and they harkened to his counsel and came not. In the morning some of the Indians came and stood at a distance off, looking at us but came not near us. But when they had been a while in view, some of them came and held out a great bass towards us so we sent a man with a biscuit and changed the cake for the bass. We had not been there many days, though by our diligence we had got up a kind of shelter to save our goods in, but we had order to come away from that place which was about Watertown unto a place called Mattapan, now Dorchester, because there was a neck of land fit to keep our cattle on.
David Claypoole Johnston was an artist and political cartoonist, who spent part of his life in Dorchester on Payson Avenue.
Today’s illustration is an example of his work.
In the 1840 U.S. election, Democrat Martin Van Buren hoped to be elected for a second term to the U.S. presidency, although he was blamed for failing to address a financial crisis during his first administration. His opponent was Whig William Henry Harrison, a war hero. Harrison won. The symbol used by the Whigs was a log cabin.
Today’s illustration shows a metamophicard, owned by the American Antiquarian Society, of Marti Van Buren. The card has a tab that, when pulled or pushed, changes the image. The “before” image shows Van Buren enjoying a goblet of White House champagne. His goblet has his initials, MVB. The “after” image depicts Van Buren frowning at his mug of log cabin hard cider. The goblet now has the initials WHH.
Henry Sturgis Russell (June 21, 1838 – February 16, 1905) was an American military and government official who served as commander of the 5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry and as the first commissioner of the Boston Fire Department.
Russell was born on June 21, 1838, in the Savin Hill section of Dorchester, Massachusetts to George R. and Sarah Parkinson (Shaw) Russell. His grandfather was ambassador Jonathan Russell and his first cousin was Robert Gould Shaw. Russell graduated from Harvard University in 1860.
Russell entered the Union Army on May 11, 1861, as a lieutenant in the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry. He was promoted to captain on December 13, 1861. He was captured at the Battle of Cedar Mountain (August 9, 1862) and sent to Libby Prison. He was released in a prisoner exchange and returned to duty on November 15, 1862. On January 22, 1863, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. On April 5, 1864, he was made a colonel of the 5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry. When the regiment reached Washington D.C., Russell was briefly assigned command of a brigade at Camp Casey. On May 13 he was ordered to join General Edward Winslow Hincks’ division in City Point, Virginia. On June 15, Russell was wounded in the Siege of Petersburg. He rejoined his regiment on September 30 at Point Lookout, Maryland, where his regiment was guarding Confederate prisoners of war. He resigned his command on February 15, 1865, and was brevetted brigadier general on March 13, 1865.
After the war, Russell joined J.M. Forbes & Co., where he sold goods from China and East India. In 1863 he married Mary Hathaway, the daughter of John Murray Forbes. The couple had five children.
In 1878, control of the Boston Police Department was transferred from the board of alderman to an independent police commission. Mayor Henry L. Pierce appointed Russell to chair the new board. Russell was credited with creating the harbor police, reorganizing the force on a semi-military basis (the first reorganization of the department since its founding in 1854), proposing new rules for conduct and definitions of duties, arranging for merit-based promotions, and instituting physical examinations for officers under the rank of captain. He left the board in 1880.
In January 1895, he was appointed by Mayor Edwin Upton Curtis to succeed John R. Murphy on the Boston Fire commission. That July, Russell became the first solo commissioner in the department’s history. During his tenure as commissioner, Russell hired and promoted based on merit rather than political considerations and worked to improve living conditions in the city’s firehouses. He remained commissioner until his death on February 16, 1905. He was buried at Milton Cemetery.
In 1909, a drinking fountain in memory of Russell was erected in Milton, Massachusetts, where he had been a summer resident for many years.
Upham’s Corner is named for Amos Upham, who kept a general store at the corner of Dudley and Boston (now Columbia Road) Streets.
Amos Upham, eighth child of Lieutenant Phineas, was born at Weston, Mass., March 11, 1789, after the death of his father. He resided with his mother until a well-grown lad, when he was apprenticed to learn the baker’s trade. In 1817 he came to Dorchester, purchased a tract of land and established a grocery store at the place now known as Upham’s Corner, which he carried on for the rest of his life. He was prominent citizen. He was married December 28, 1819, to Miss Abigail Humphreys, daughter of Deacon James Humphreys, of Dorchester. They were the parents of four children: James H.; Charles Amos, born March 10, 1822; Abigail, who died at the age five and half years; and Amos, Jr., who died in Philadelphia when about thirty-two years old. Amos Upham, the father, was an active member of the old fire department. He was a Free Mason and member of the First Church of Dorchester. His death took place January 25, 1872. His wife died December 19,1878.
Source of text: American Series of Popular Biographies. Massachusetts Edition, 1891.
Dorchester Illustration 2603 John Tucker’s harness shop
The house in the illustration, which still exists, is located behind the stores at 1156 to 1160 Washington Street. It was built in 1798. The atlases indicate that the stores in front of the house were first built after 1889 and before 1894, probably following Tucker’s death in 1892.
John Atherton Tucker operated a harness shop at 1158 Washington Street and lived there much of his life. Later in life, sometime between 1857 and 1861, he moved to 1079 Adams Street.
The house on Washington Street, shown in the illustration, was built by John’s father, Atherton Tucker in 1798. In 1830, Atherton divided the property, apparently keeping a third interest for himself, giving a third to his son, William, and giving John a third interest. John’s portion was described as:
the south part of the chaise maker’s shop, bounded by the partition as it now stands measuring about 14 feet more or less, the whole of the south chamber over said shop and the whole of the chamber over the same on the third story and the whole of the bedroom in the entry of the third story in the building ceded by and belonging to me, [and] a certain parcel of land hereinafter described, also one third of the cellar on the south side of said building containing two arches and the privilege of passing to and from said rooms and places in a convenient manner. Also one undivided third part of the barn on said land except the paint shop in the south part of the same, measuring fifteen feet in front with the platform adjoining the same, also one undivided third part of the wood house thereon …
John A. Tucker was born in 1803. At the time of his retirement in 1891, an article in The Dorchester Beacon newspaper stated that John started in business in 1829. The non-population U.S. Census schedules for 1850 and 1860 give the value of his annual production of harnesses as $1,000.
Postcards came into their greatest era of popularity just after the turn of the 20th century. Soon, homeowners were having photos of their homes made into postcards.
Today we have a postcard written in October 1906 by Florence Collins of 98 Centre Street, explaining that she has been ill with a fever and cold and that she has been confined to eating broths and would like to get back to solid food. The doctor even recommended that she might want to take a trip to warm Jamaica in January. The recent photo of the house shows how enclosing the porches and applying siding have hidden the original features of the design.
The house at 98 Centre Street was built in 1896. Florence and her husband, John, were both born in Maine and were married there in 1887. They came to the Boston area in the 1890s, living first in Quincy then in Roxbury. They bought the house at 98 Centre Street in 1898 and moved in right away. They lived on Centre Street until they bought 41 Tremlett Street and move there in 1909.
Doctor Ethelene Whitmire, from the University of Wisconsin, has brought to our attention some information about a Dorchester resident, Reed Edwin Peggram.
Previously unknown to us, Peggram’s grandmother worked in the kitchen of the William Clapp House during the period 1900 to 1930, and Frank Clapp wrote a letter of recommendation for Reed Peggram’s application to enter Harvard College. One of the Internet entries about Peggram is titled “The Gay Black American Who Stared Down Nazis in the Name of Love.” It can be found at this link:
Reed Edwin Peggram was born in Dorchester on July 26, 1914, and died here on April 20, 1982. He was an American scholar, translator, and teacher of linguistics. He is also known for his survival of Nazi imprisonment during World War II.
Reed’s parents came to Dorchester from Virginia. Peggram’s mother was a housewife, and after World War I, his father, was sent to a hospital in Virginia for long term recovery after an injury from his military service in the war. His parents divorced, and Reed’s mother married a man with the last name Farrar. The couple moved to New Jersey. Reed remained in Dorchester under the care are of his grandmother, Mrs. Laura Reed, who worked as a school custodian and as day help for private families.
Although neither of his parents graduated from college, Peggram was a successful scholar. He attended the Boston Latin School, graduating in 1931. His main interests were in literature, languages, and dramatics. During his time in school, he also enjoyed participating in track, in Dramatic Club, and in tutoring French and Latin. He earned honors in many of his courses, including Elementary Latin, French, and German as well as Advanced Latin, and he received several awards.
Reed attended Harvard College from 1931 to 1935, graduating magna cum laude with his Bachelor of Arts in Romance languages and literature in the department of Romance philology. Peggram received his master’s degree in comparative literature from Harvard University in 1936. He was a a Graduate Residence Fellow in comparative literature at Columbia University from 1936 to 1937, returning to Harvard in1937 to pursue his PhD in comparative literature.
In 1938, Peggram received the John Harvard Fellowship in 1938 and the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship to study abroad at the University of Paris. While in Paris, he met Gerdh Hauptmann of Copenhagen, Denmark, another scholar who studied fine arts and painting. Reed and Gerdh went together in 1939 to study at the University of Copenhagen
Peggram and Hauptmann formed a strong relationship and wanted to leave for America together. Unfortunately, these plans were delayed first by financial limitations and later by the German occupation of Denmark. Peggram and Hauptmann fled to France and eventually settled in Italy.
The two men were captured in 1941 by Nazis and imprisoned in the Bagni Di Lucca concentration camp near Pistola, Italy. During this time, Peggram had the chance to return to the United States, and Hauptmann was offered work under German occupation. Yet, both men refused these opportunities, as they were not willing to separate from one another, resulting in death sentences and imprisonment. They spent two years in German and Italian concentration camps, during which military personnel confiscated their documentation papers. Eventually, both Peggram and Hauptmann escaped prison, facing harsh conditions and machine gun fire along their journey. The pair found safety with the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy. Unfortunately, because neither of them had their identification documents, Peggram and Hauptmann were delayed in relocating. Their time in Nazi imprisonment left both men to suffer from nervous breakdowns and mental health problems. After his freedom, Peggram received four years of treatment for his mental health issues.
After seven years abroad, Peggram travelled back to the United States to work as a translator and a teacher. Living in his home town of Dorchester in Boston, Massachusetts, he spent his time working, expanding his language skills, and singing in Episcopal Church choirs Peggram never married and was childless. However, several personal letters to his Harvard colleague, Leonard Bernstein, and private accounts indicate he was homosexual and likely had a romantic relationship with Gerdh Hauptmann during their time together.
Reed Edwin Peggram died on April 20, 1982, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, at the age of 67. He was retired at the time of his death.
