[from a clipping from some unknown, undated publication, from the 2nd half of the 19th century]
Of all the women who devoted themselves to the soldiers in our late war [Civil War], perhaps none had a more varied experience than Elida B. Rumsey—a girl so young that Miss Dix would not receive her as a nurse. Undaunted by seeming difficulties, she persisted in “doing the next thing,” and so fulfilled her great desire to do something for the soldiers, for wherever she saw a soldier in need her ready sympathies were enlisted, little caring if the heart bets stirred a coat of blue or gray.
She was engaged to Mr. John A. Fowle, of Jamaica Plain, Mass., who was employed in the Navy Dept, Washington, but who devoted all his spare time to philanthropic enterprises, and their work was supplementary from the first. In Nov. ’61, she began to visit the hospitals and sing to the soldiers, and the knowledge of how little the boys had to look forward to from day to day, while under such depressing influences, first inspired the thought of supplying them with pictures and books. One of the fist things established was a Sunday evening prayer meeting in Columbia College Hospital, in an upper room in Auntie Pomroy’s ward. That room was crowded night after night, and over flow meetings were held in a grove nearby. The interest steadily increased, and the enthusiasm of the soldiers could not be repressed, when Miss Rumsey’s sweet voice stirred their souls, and rekindled the noble self-sacrificing spirit that had brought them to such a place. The soldiers planned what they wanted her to sing from week to week, and she three into the songs all her great desire to bring the boys to their better selves and help them to feel they were not forgotten and alone.
Miss Rumsey was the means of founding a Soldier’s Free Library, the first one hundred dollars was given by Mrs. Walter Baker, a greater part of the remainder was earned by Miss Rumsey and Mr. Fowle, giving concerts.
Mr. Fowle and Miss Rumsey, on March 1st, 1863, were married in the Hall of Representatives, about 4000 being present, the marriage ceremony was performed according to the rights of the Episcopal Church, by the Rev. Mr. Quint, pastor of the church which Mr. Fowle attended in Jamaica Plain, and Chaplain of the 2nd Mass. Reg.
Mr. and Mrs. Fowle now reside in Dorchester, Mass.
Andrew Oliver appears at the right in this copy of a painting at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Oliver was Lieutenant Governor of the Massachusetts leading up to the Revolution and was a loyalist. His country house was located at the corner of Washington and Park Streets, later owned by Walter Baker of Baker chocolate fame. The house was replaced by the Lucy Stone School in 1937.
Oliver “entertained the finest of the land, where gentlemen in powdered wigs and ladies in fine old silks used to dance the minuet.” The house was sold by Oliver’s estate to Col. Benjamin Hichborn, and in 1817 it went to his brother Samuel, “who entertained Gen. Lafayette, and Presidents Jefferson and Munroe” there.
Andrew Oliver (March 28, 1706 – March 3, 1774) was a merchant and public official in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was from a wealthy and politically powerful merchant family and is best known as the Massachusetts official responsible for implementing the provisions of the Stamp Act, for which he was burned in effigy. He never actually carried out those duties, and was, in 1771, commissioned as the province’s lieutenant governor. Popular indignation against him broke out again in 1773, when private letters between Oliver and Gov. Thomas Hutchinson were discovered, expressing criticism of the colonists and recommending coercive measures.
The Dorchester Woman’s Club, which was incorporated in 1896, promoted moral, social and intellectual culture in the community. The group began in 1892 at the home of Mrs. Clara May Ripley, and by its third meeting, was so popular that the group had to meet in a church. The membership continued to increase, and in 1896, Harriet E Bean, Ella C. R. Whiton, Ellen E. C. Blair, and their associates submitted the articles of incorporation. The Club soon had gathered the money to build a clubhouse on Centre Street. In 1897, the Club purchased a lot on Centre Street and hired A. Warren Gould, a local architect to design their new home.
Designed by local architect, A. Warren Gould, in the Colonial Revival-style with other influences, it was built in 1898. The cornice is reminiscent of the Gothic-revival style, but the corner quoins and cylindrical bay windows are more reminiscent of Colonial-revival designs.
The left side of the building was called Ripley Hall in honor of the founder, and the right hand side of the building, was named Whiton Hall, for Ella Whiton of Melville Avenue, wife of Royal Whiton, a retired railway official. Mrs. Whiton was very efficient in securing the building of the beautiful club-house of the Dorchester Woman’s Club House Association — of which association she became president. She was also a charter member of the Dorchester Woman’s Club and filled the position of treasurer for the Club for five years.
Classes for improvement in the early years included a choral class and a local history class that embraced the history of Dorchester from its settlement in 1630 through the Revolution. The group established and maintained sixteen programs per year intended to be stimulating to the thought, the sympathies, or the artistic sense of the attending members (and at times catering to their palates as well, “since even women grow wondrous open-hearted over their teacups.”
The Club lasted into the 1960s.
The building is currently owned by the New Life Restoration Temple, Inc.
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The Gilbert Stuart School stood approximately where the Lower Mills branch of the Boston Public Library is located today.
The Gilbert Stuart School was opened in 1896 and closed in 1975.
The Boston Globe, July 4, 1896
“New Schoolhouse on Richmond St., Dorchester, Will be Called the Gilbert Stuart School
At the last meeting of the school board, Mr. Dunn, for the committee on schoolhouses, reported favorably on the name of Gilbert Stuart for the new school on Richmond St., Dorchester. From Frank T. Robinson, secretary of the Gilbert Stuart Fund Association, was received a communication asking that the name of Stuart be adopted and stating that appropriate pictures would be presented to the school.
This brings to notice the name of our greatest portrait painter, the author of the well known likenesses of George Washington and his wife, beside a long list of our Revolutionary army and navy heroes.
Stuart lived for 20 years in Boston and his remains lie in the central burying ground, Boston Common. He was born at Narragansett, R.I., in 1755 and died July 10, 1828.”
Also in July 1896, the School Committee extended thanks to the Stuart Fund Association for its gift of portraits of Gilbert Stuart and also Stuart’s portraits of George and Martha Washington for the Gilbert Stuart School.
At the left of the photograph, there is a small building at the corner of Dorchester Avenue and Richmont Street with a sign: W. A. Chamberlain, Carpenter & Builder. William A. Chamberlain lived at 121 River Street.
The watercolor painting at the top of today’s illustration was painted by Frank Henry Shapleigh, a noted fine art painter who visited Dorchester in the 1870s. The illustration was published in A History and Guide to the Restoration of Dorchester Shores, (Metropolitan District Commission, 1989). The photograph below shows the house as displayed in Google Street View.
The original house seems to have followed the pattern of New England farm houses: big house, little house, back house and barn, all attached in a row. Although the barn and back house have disappeared, the house at 32 Mill Street is still a significant part of the Dorchester landscape.
The house appears on the 1831 map of Dorchester and was probably built in the decade preceding. It was the home of Elisha Preston, a merchant involved in the West India Trade and one of the major figures in the Commercial Point whaling industry. Originally occupying a large tract of land which remained in the family through the 1870s, in mid-century this house was the residence of John Preston, the owner of a chocolate and cocoa mill located on Commercial Point.
During the 1830s, the whaling the syndicate began to buy up enormous tracts of land at both Commercial and Clam Points. One of the partners, Elisha Preston, also considerably augmented his own already-extensive land holdings. In addition to land, Preston had inherited the family chocolate and cocoa business begun by his father in Lower Mills, and moved the business to Commercial Point during the 1830s. Preston is believed to have built the Federal Italianate style, center-hall plan, residence at 32 Mill Street. Elisha’s son John Preston inherited the house, business, and extensive land holdings. The property included a large rectangular garden, now the site of a pair of modem tract houses at 36-38 Mill Street.
Today’s illustration includes a vintage photograph showing the Shepard Bake House at the corner of Bowdoin and Winter Street. The lower photo, from Google Street View, shows the corner today. The Bake House building is still in place, and the third building up the hill is there too.
In 1818, Otis Shepard, of Dorchester completed his apprenticeship in 1818 and joined his brother Hiram, under the firm name of Otis Shepard & Co. They opened a small cracker bakery at Meeting House Hill. They prospered, and in 1820, built the brick building still standing on Bowdoin Street, and long known as a landmark. The Shepard family included eight brothers, Otis being the oldest. In time, Hiram left the firm and was succeeded by James, who, after Otis died, became head of the enterprise. Horatio was employed as driver, and he became head of the firm after James’ death in 1869. Horatio had a son, Albert E., who, after leaving school, entered his father’s employ and succeeded to the ownership when death claimed his father in 1880.
The business flourished, and two retail stores were operated in connection with the main bakery. One was at 417 Neponset Avenue, and the other was at 1401 Dorchester Avenue, which latter store was sold to David Smith in 1907.
The Shepard bakery became famous for its ” ‘Lection Cakes.” These were sold especially at election or town-meeting days, when Mr. Shepard always had a counter in the Town Hall. These cakes were made of a good, rich bun dough, and sold at twenty cents a sheet, and weighed about a pound and one-half.
The top photograph in today’s email is a photograph of 77 Bailey Street as seen from Dorchester Avenue in the late nineteenth century. By 1910, the land between the Bailey house and Dorchester Avenue was subdivided for three three-deckers, two facing Dorchester Avenue and another facing Bailey Street, right next to the front of the old Bailey house. The entrance to 77 Bailey Street was changed from the house’s former front, facing Dorchester Avenue, to a new entrance on Bailey Street. The bottom photograph shows the modern streetscape with the yellow 77 Bailey Street house sandwiched between a three-decker on the left and another multi-family house on the right.
John Bailey acquired 6 ¼ acres of land in 1824. He may have built a house there, or he may have acquired land with an already-existing house. He was elected that year to the U.S. House of Representatives from the 10th Congressional District, but the House refused to seat him, because he was not a resident of that district. He had moved to Dorchester. The house is represented on the 1831 map of Dorchester and Milton drawn by Edmund J. Baker.
Bailey was born on 1786 in the part of Stoughton that became Canton in 1797. Bailey graduated from Brown University and was employed as a tutor and librarian in Providence from 1807 to 1814. Bailey was a poet, and two of his poems and a play are in the collection of the John Hay Library, Brown University.
John Bailey was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from the Massachusetts 10th Congressional district, serving from 1814 to 1817. Bailey was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1816. He became the clerk in the Department of State in Washington, D.C., from 1817-1823. He presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Eighteenth Congress, but the election was contested on the ground that he was not a resident of the district he purported to represent, and by resolution of March 18, 1824, the House declared he was not entitled to the seat. Bailey was subsequently elected as an Adams-Clay Republican to fill the vacancy in the seat that he had been denied; reelected as an Adams supporter to the Nineteenth and Twentieth, and as an Anti-Jacksonian in the Twenty-first Congress. He was chair of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State during the Nineteenth Congress. John Bailey appeared in the 1830 U.S. Census as a resident of Dorchester. He was not a candidate for re-nomination in 1830, but he served as a member of the Massachusetts State senate from 1831 to 1834. He was the unsuccessful Anti-Masonic candidate for Governor in 1834. John Bailey died in Dorchester, Mass., June 26, 1835. His wife, Ann, died in late December of the same year.
Boston was very densely populated in the 1860s, and the anticipation of Dorchester’s annexation to Boston on January 1, 1870, brought attention to Dorchester. The excitement of the possibilities of residential development led to the creation of subdivisions of large tracts of land in the late 1860s and the early years of the 1870s.
Bailey and Fuller Streets were developed in the early 1870s. Benjamin B. Newhall acquired the eastern third of the area, which comprised the estate of John Bailey, and Enoch P. Fuller, Newhall’s father-in-law, acquired the western two-thirds of the area, which was formerly a property owned by the Robinson family. Together, Newhall Fuller, his father-in-law, engaged surveyor Luther Briggs to prepare a subdivision, dated April 1, 1870, showing proposed Bailey and Fuller Streets and dividing the land into generally rectangular lots, nearly all of which were between 10,000 and 11,000 square feet.
During the early years of the subdivision, Benjamin Newhall moved into the old Bailey house. He and his father-in-law each built houses on some of the lots, and they sold lots to other people, either for immediate construction or for investment.
In 1882, The Conant family moved into 77 Bailey Street. James S. Conant was in real estate. His son,
James Bryant Conant, was born in 1893. He attended the Roxbury Latin School, then Harvard College. He earned a PhD in Chemistry from Harvard University.
James Bryant Conant became president of Harvard University and during World War I, he served in the U.S. Army as a chemist, working on the development of poison gases. He was a proponent of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and of co-education. For his accomplishments in chemistry, he was awarded the American Chemical Society’s Nichols Medal in 1932, Columbia University’s Chandler Medal in 1932, and the American Chemical Society’s highest honor, the Priestley Medal, in 1944.
In 1940, he was appointed to the National Defense Research Committee and became chair in 1941. He oversaw the development of synthetic rubber and the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs. He was part of the committee that advised President Harry Truman to use atomic bombs on Japan. He served on the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission. As part of that committee, he urged the president not to develop a hydrogen bomb. He retired from Harvard in 1953 and became the United States High Commissioner for Germany and later Ambassador to West Germany after the re-establishment of a recognized national government there. In 1957, he returned to the United States and wrote several books about the education system in this county. He died in 1978.
Mr. Leavens is a former Port Norfolk resident. He grew up at 52 Port Norfolk Street.
The interview with Merrill George Leavens took place, June 11, 2021, at his home, 212 Parke Ave., Squantum (Quincy). Present also was his wife Pauline (Polly) and his 4 daughters, Deborah McAlister, Jane Estabrooks, Nancy Skrabak and Carol Comeau. Merrill also has 2 sons, Merrill Edward and Chris.
Merrill, 97 years old, shared his memories with Dorchester Historical Society board members Emy Thomas and Carole Mooney. Merrill’s wife and his four daughters had located photographs of Port Norfolk which helped spark his memory.
Through a combination of Merrill’s storytelling (he was very organized and tried to keep things on track), prompts from looking at the photographs of Port Norfolk and prompts from his daughters, it was a very lively and fun interview. Most of the photographs had been taken by Pat Carson, a professional photographer, who was a tenant at #52. His many photographs provide us with a view of the early 1900’s.
Merrill was born 26 Dec 1923 and raised in the Port Norfolk section of Dorchester at 52 Port Norfolk St. He was the son of Merrill W. Leavens (1902-26 Jul 1978) and his wife Josephine M. (Ulrich) (circa 1903 – 31 May 2000). He had 3 younger siblings, Robert H., Barbara E. and Harold W. Leavens.
Merrill in front of 52 Port Norfolk Street with 55 Port Norfolk Street in the background, ca. 1933.
When Merrill G. Leavens lived in Port Norfolk, the neighborhood consisted of an active port with a lumber yard (Stearns Lumber), kitchen equipment manufacturer (Peter’s Co. where Sullivan & McLaughlin is now and the beautiful stone wall that was a WPA and CCC project) and a coal company (Frost Coal). Here he watched the schooners come in loaded with lumber for the Stearns Lumber Company and the deep sea fishing boats (flounder fleet).
According to the 1920 census, Merrill G. Leavens’ father, Merrill W. Leavens, 18 years of age, was a lodger with the Ulrich family (Martin Ulrich, Josephine M. and their 4 children) at 74 Dix Street, Dorchester. It was probably at this time that Merrill W. met Josephine M., the eldest Ulrich daughter, age 17. Merrill W. was working as a shipbuilder at the shipyard and Josephine was working at the chocolate factory. They were married in 1922.
In 1928, Merrill W. and family moved to a multi-family house that Mrs. Ulrich purchased at 52 Port Norfolk Street. The 1930 U.S. Census shows that a family named White lived in one unit, while Merrill and Josephine lived in another unit with their three children: Merrill G. Leavens, 6; Robert H. Leavens, 4; and Barbara E. Leavens, 2 months. Merrill W. was listed as a laborer in the shipyard.
In the 1940 census, Merrill W. Leavens, a ship fitter for the Navy Yard, was living with his wife and their four children at 52 Port Norfolk Street.The grandparents (Martin G. and Josephine M. Ulrich), both 68 years old,were now living with them. Two other units were rented to the Carson family and the Greer family.
52 Port Norfolk Street, 2019.
Merrill’s grandparents, the Ulrich’s, bought 52 Port Norfolk Street on February 12, 1928. The 1933 atlas shows number 52, a large piece of property owned by M.G. & J.M. Ulrich (Martin G. & Josephine M.), 14,000, square feet, fronting on Port Norfolk Street and running to the street behind, with an outbuilding between 71 and 77 Lawley Street. The buildings were all attached. The barn had brick walls, but Merrill said that the barn had caught fire twice.
Detail from 1933 atlas showing 52 Port Norfolk Street indicated by grey oval.
Grandfather Ulrich was a farmer who had a garden and grape arbor on the property, and he was a woodcarver for the Skinner organ factory on Sidney Street in Dorchester.
John, Pa Ulrich, Kitty & Bill Keenan, Josephine & Merrill W. Leavens.
Today, the barn is gone and there are two houses, where there used to be one. The section of the house that extended to the right became a separate house numbered 52A Port Norfolk Street. The 52A property was formerly the laundry and an apartment where one of Merrill G.’s sisters lived. Another tenant was the professional photographer Pat Carson who took many of the photographs. The remnants of the barn’s foundation on the Lawley-Street side of the property can still be seen today.
Merrill Leavens in the barn, 1934.
Remnants of the barn foundation at 52 Port Norfolk Street as seen from Lawley Street.
Directly across the street from 52 Port Norfolk Street, two empty lots that extended to Walnut Street (between 180 and 188 Walnut Street) were used as a parking lot for George Lawley & Sons. One of these was owned by William W. Whitmarsh who had also owned the house at 52 Port Norfolk Street from 1885 to the 19 teens.
Detail from 1933 atlas showing parking area between Port Norfolk Street and Walnut Street – outlined in red oval and No. 21028 Parking lot between Port Norfolk and Walnut Street 1930s.
When Merrill G. was a baby, his father would take him to Erickson’s Beach. One of the pictures included show Lawley’s building on Left and Squantum Air Station (Navy Yard) in the background and the other showing just the Air Station. The beach would have been between what is now Venezia Restaurant and the Port Norfolk Yacht Club. We all know what it is like when the tide is out.
Merrill W. Leavens and Merrill G. Leavens.
Merrill attended schools in Dorchester: Minot Elementary and Woodrow Wilson Jr. High. He then attended Mechanic Arts High School in Boston.When he was 13 and 14 years old, he sold papers in Neponset and during high school, he worked at Lawley’s Shipyard.
Merrill remembers “worming,” digging clams and worms for fishermen on the tip of the Naval Air Station with his buddy Earl Button. “There was a beautiful sand bar with great big clams. We would row through the culver (near the UMass campus) when the tide came in,” he recalled.
He named his first boat the New Deal, after President Roosevelt’s plan to rejuvenate the economy. Once he found an abandoned boat in Port Norfolk. Merrill and his Dad rebuilt it with friends at the Port Norfolk Yacht Club and named it the “Merijonbil”, a combination of the builders’ names (Merrill, John and Bil).
The Port Norfolk Yacht Club was built over two barges. It was small back then but has grown over the years, Merrill noted.
He remembered a Port Norfolk Yacht Club outing on Sunday, August 5 1934 on Peddocks Island. Perhaps he meant Rainsford Island as The Dorchester Beacon reported on September 1, 1934. It was a Clambake and Program of Sports with entertainment provided by Commodore Jensen William Tomlinson, Joseph White, Martin Ulrich, M. W. Leavens, Peter Sheridan and John Ulrich.
He remembered the Ragman coming around with his horse and cart. When he was a boy, he was friendly with him and he once climbed onto the cart while the ragman was busy with a customer. But when he picked up the reins the horse started galloping with items flying off the cart. “I could not stop that horse from galloping but he finally slowed down on Tenean Street where there was a dump (now the Southeast Expressway),” Merrill said.
During the 1938 hurricane, a boat called “The Needle” came into Port Norfolk to find a safe mooring and cut the line on Merrill’s boat while turning around. “Oh boy, did I cuss that thing,” Merrill said, but they later found his boat on Savin Hill, high and dry.
He registered for WWII Draft, 30 Jun 1942. He was 18 years old, and he was working for George Lawley and Son on Erickson St. He enlisted in the Navy, was in transit, 32 days, on a 3-islander Dutch freighter and served in the Philippines not far from Manila, on Luzon Island, Clark Air Base.
World War II draft registration card.
Merrill said that when Pearl Harbor was bombed, he was just out of high school making ice boxes at Peter’s Company.
While in the service, he worked as a 3rd class metalsmith repairing planes at Clark field, a Philippine Air Force Base on Luzon Island which he described as a graveyard for wings and tails.
During the war, Merrill’s father built a new home in Squantum, and the family moved there from Port Norfolk. When Merrill returned from service, he found his family in the new home on Parke Avenue, Squantum, Quincy. So, when Merrill G. Leavens left Dorchester to serve in World War II, he essentially left Dorchester behind.
He married Pauline Rupprecht in 1948 in Quincy. Polly had worked at the Air Station during high school and was active at St. Ann’s Church.
Merrill G. Leavens’ father, Merrill W. Leavens, died July 26, 1978, and Josephine Leavens died May 31, 2000.
Last week’s illustration about Abraham Lincoln and other presidents’ visits to Dorchester brought in some questions about visits by even more presidents. Today’s illustration shows the Walter Baker mansion Washington Street (top) and the Harrison Square depot on the Old Colony Railroad (Park Street where the road passes underneath the rail line).
Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe visited Colonel Benjamin Hichborn when they came to Boston. He lived on Washington Street in Dorchester in the mansion that was later owned by Walter Baker. Surely, John Quincy Adams would have at least traveled through Dorchester. The name Harrison Square commemorates William Henry Harrison’s visit to Dorchester during the presidential campaign of 1840. John F. Kennedy played tennis at his grandparents’ house on Welles Avenue and, in 1962, during his term as President, he came to Dorchester to visit his grandmother, Mary Fitzgerald. George H. W. Bush was born in Milton, so it is likely he visited Dorchester. Bill Clinton visited the Eire Pub in 1992 among other visits to UMass Boston. George W. Bush debated Al Gore in the presidential debate at UMass Boston, in October 2000. Joe Biden spoke to striking Stop & Shop Workers at the South Bay shopping center in 2019.
Between last week and this week, the total list so far includes:
Dorchester Illustration 2554 Abraham Lincoln in Dorchester
Thinking about Presidents Day brings to mind visits to Dorchester by Presidents both before they became President and after. Ronald Reagan stopped at the Eire Pub. Barack Obama visited TechBoston Academy during his presidency. George Washington visited Dorchester to scout out Dorchester Heights. John Adams traveled through Dorchester from Quincy to Boston. Presidential debates have drawn others. In the nineteenth century, Abraham Lincoln came to Dorchester in 1848, campaigning for Zachary Taylor, the Whig Party candidate for president and hero of the Mexican-American War.
The illustration is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln by the artist Thomas Murphy Johnston, a Dorchester artist.
The following is taken from https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/(PRINTS–1860-CAMPAIGN)-Johnston-TM-lithographer;-after-Germ?saleno=2486&lotNo=85&refNo=748241
The artist and lithographer Thomas Murphy Johnston (1834-1869), the son of a famous caricaturist [David Claypool Johnston], based this very early campaign print on a September 1858 photograph by Christopher German. It was apparently done circa May 1860, just after Lincoln’s nomination. It was reviewed in the Boston Transcript of 1 June 1860, which called it “a most excellent lithographic portrait.”
The publisher, Charles H. Brainard of Boston, thought an even better portrait could be done from an original sketch, so the next month he then sent Johnston west to Illinois. Both artist and publisher were quite strapped for cash–Brainard put 1000 copies of his Stephen Douglas engraving in hock just to provide Johnston with a ten-dollar advance. Lincoln sat for Johnston in Springfield, and the resulting crayon portrait was then engraved in Boston by Francis D’Avignon (not offered here). It proved less successful than the original Brainard-Johnston collaboration, and only one copy is known to survive today.
