Today’s illustration appeared in Ballou’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, a 19th-century illustrated magazine published in Boston, in 1855.
The subject of the engraving is the Old Colony Railroad bridge between Savin Hill and Commercial Point. The artist was probably standing on the hill behind the First Parish Church, overlooking Dorchester Bay.
On March 16, 1844 the Old Colony Railroad Corporation was formed to provide a rail connection between Boston and Plymouth. Construction of the line began in South Boston in June 1844 and the 36.8 mile line opened to Plymouth on Nov. 10, 1845. The extension from South Boston to the newly-completed Kneeland Street Station in Boston opened on June 19, 1847.
Richard Scarry (1919-1994), children’s author and illustrator, grew up in Dorchester.
His parents, John and Mary, bought a house at 32 Melville Ave. in 1917. John Scarry operated Scarry’s department store in Brookline Village for 45 years and a men’s store in Fields Corner. He was president of the Massachusetts Cooperative Bank and of the Dorchester Board of Trade.
After high school, Richard Scarry enrolled in a business college but dropped out to become a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was living at home and a student there when he was drafted in 1943. His draft registration card described him as 6 feet tall, 150 pounds with a light complexion, brown hair and brown eyes. The Boston Residents Lists note that he lived at 32 Melville Ave. until 1946.
Scarry is best known for his Best Ever book series that take place primarily in the fictional town of Busytown, which was populated by friendly and helpful animals, including Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Mr. Frumble, police Sergeant Murphy, Mr. Fixit, Bananas Gorilla and Hilda Hippo. The Busytown books were also adapted into an animated series for television, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, which can be viewed on YouTube. The books and animated series were produced for a preschool-age audience and espouse themes such as teamwork, friendship, courage, and responsibility.
Scarry illustrated more than 150 books many are still in print. His books have sold over 100 million copies worldwide and are published in 20 languages.
Scarry died 1994. The Society of Illustrators posthumously awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
Dorchester Illustration 2613 Henry Martyn Tremlett, Civil War
Henry Martyn Tremlett was a Boston merchant. Tremlett was born July 15, 1833 in Dorchester, the son of Thomas and Cordelia Tremlett. Tremlett began as a captain in the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment from 1861 to 1862, then as a major in 1862, and eventually a lieutenant colonel in 1864 commanding the 39th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
He lived in Dorchester until the early 1850s, when his family moved to Boston. His father was a successful shipping merchant as a partner in the company Deblois & Tremlett with premises at 28 Foster’s Wharf in Boston. In 1855, he entered into business in Boston with his older brother Frank (Francis E.) as Tremlett Bros. & Company.
Following the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Tremlett joined the 4th Battalion of the Massachusetts Militia on April 25. In a short time, he rose to the rank of sergeant. On July 10, 1861, he enlisted in the 20th Massachusetts Regiment that was forming in Readville. Tremlett was commissioned to the rank of captain and assigned to command Company A. The regiment was initially part of Lander’s Brigade, Second Division, Second Corps.
On Sept. 4, 1861, two months after the First Manassas (the first major battle of the Civil War), the 20th Massachusetts received orders to leave for the front. Tremlett served through many battles throughout his three year enlistment. He also served in Boston as a recruiting officer. On July 10, 1864, he reenlisted. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and assigned as the new commanding officer of the 39th Regiment, Fifth Corps, which was camped in the center of the Union line outside Petersburg, Virginia.
At the end of March 1865, the 39th was in the Battle of Gravelly Run also known as the Battle of White Oak Road, in Virginia. Where they encountered strong Confederate opposition. During the battle, Tremlett was wounded in the leg. As Adjutant General Schouler noted in his annual report, “Lieutenant-Colonel Tremlett was wounded soon after the engagement began, and was with much difficulty conveyed to the rear. It was found necessary at the hospital to amputate his leg at once.”
Back in Boston, Tremlett was hospitalized and received treatment over the course of several weeks before being discharged. Not long after, he developed complications from his wound and died about a month after the armistice, on June 6, 1865. Tremlett is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain.
Dorchester Illustration 2612 Charles H. Haines, Jr., World War I
Today’s illustration is from the Aug. 3, 1918, edition of The Dorchester Beacon newspaper.
Charles H. Haines, Jr., was born in Dorchester on Feb. 14, 1888, to Charles H. Haines and his wife, Florence, who were married the year before. Charles, Sr., had moved to the newly-built house at 16 Warner St. in 1886.
Charles, Jr., attended the Oliver Wendell Holmes School and Dorchester High School. His entry in the 1910 U.S. Census says that he was working as a salesman in a lace store. In 1917, he was living at 16 Warner St. and working as a traveling salesman for Shoninger Bros., New York, NY.
When he registered for the draft for World War I on June 5, 1917, he was described as slender, 5 feet 9 inches tall, with black hair and hazel eyes. Charles, Jr., enlisted in the aviation section of the Signal Corps at the outbreak of the war and got his general training at Princeton University. Then he went to Texas, where he received his commission. He was a member of the 1st Provisional Wing of the Army Aero Corps. Charles died in Hempstead, NY, in July 1918, when he was piloting a “giant Haviland battle plane,” which fell to the ground.
The top photograph in today’s illustration was recently shared on Facebook.
The Shawmut Branch of the Old Colony Railroad runs from Savin Hill to Ashmont. Electrification of the Shawmut Branch began at the end of 1926 and continued over the next two years. At that time, a tunnel cap was placed over the Shawmut section of the line. The photo at the top of today’s illustration, dated Aug. 22, 1928, shows the tunnel cap leading from Centre Street to the Shawmut Station in the distance. The new Shawmut Station opened for service on Sept. 1, 1928.
The bottom photo shows the scene as it looks today. The building at the left in the older photo is no longer there. That location is now the Epiphany School parking lot, which can be seen in the distance to the left of the station. In 1928, when the top photo was taken, the site of the Epiphany School was the Thomas A. Fitzpatrick facility. The Fitzpatrick Brothers auto repair company later moved to Centre Street, a little off to the left of what can be seen in the photos.
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.
