Dorchester Illustration 2477 Hotel at Lower Mills

Posted on October 4, 2020 by earltaylor

2477 The Falls at Baker Chocolate

Dorchester Illustration no. 2477    Hotel at Lower Mills

Hotel at Lower Mills

Minot Thayer owned a hotel that later became known as Young’s Hotel and also known at some time as the Hotel Milton located on the west side of Adams Street at Lower Mills, approximately where the Baker Chocolate Administration Building was built in 1919.  The detail from the 1874 atlas shows Thayer’s property as gray-shaded buildings across from the bend in the Neponset River.  Either the building was remodeled or replaced, or the street was widened with the result that the building depicted in the postcard is closer to Adams Street than in the 1874 atlas.  (This section of Adams Street has, at times, been called Washington Street).

The History of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts by John R. Chaffee (Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1917) mentions the old tavern conducted by Minot Thayer, Sr.  The 1858 and 1874 maps show the hotel property owned by Minot Thayer.  After 1874 the property was acquired by Seth Mann and later conveyed to the Baker Company in the early 1900s.

Message from Milton Historical Society:

As you may know Minot Thayer purchased the Blue Hill Hotel (later called Clark’s Tavern) in Milton in 1832 from Abigail Tucker.  He kept it as a hotel for several years then rented it to several individuals: Cephas Belcher (brother-in-law), Mr. Linfield,  Vinton Clark of Randolph, Mr. Huckins (son-in-law) and last it was kept by Wm. H. Clark (son-in-law) who  either purchased or inherited the hotel after after the death of Minot Thayer.  You might enjoy the following incident I found about Minot Thayer and his Lower Mills tavern.  It’s from old notebook donated to the Milton Historical Society by Eleanor Martin who had recorded such incidents from talks with her father and grandfather over the years.
Bill Miller, the brother of Annette Miller [who owned “Miss Miller’s Female Academy” aka Milton Hill House], followed the sea.  He was “full of rum and full of fight” most of the time.  On one occasion he was called as a witness against tavern keeper Minot Thayer.  “Mr. Miller,” said the judge, are you acquainted with Mr. Thayer?” “Yes, sir.” “Keeps a tavern at the Lower Mills, doesn’t he?” “Yes, sir.” “Did you ever drink anything at Mr. Thayer’s?” Yes, sir.”   “What was it you drank there?” No reply.  “Ever drink any rum there?” “Don’t think I ever did, sir.” “Ever drank any brandy there?”  “Don’t think I ever did, sir.”  “Ever drink any gin there?” “Don’t think I ever did, sir.” “Ever drank any wine there?” “Don’t think I ever did, sir.” “I suppose you know what rum, brandy, gin and wine are, Mr. Miller.”  Bill straightened up: “Sir, I have drunk rum in Jamaica, gin in Holland, brandy and wine in France,”  “but I never drank anything of that sort at Mr. Thayer’s.”  “But you say you have drank at Mr. Thayer’s.  What was it you drank? What do you call it?” “I call it – a damn – villainous – compound!”

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Dorchester Illustration 2476 Territory given up for the creation of Hyde Park

Posted on September 27, 2020 by earltaylor

2476 1850 Whiting map with red box territory given up for Hyde Park

Dorchester Illustration no. 2476   Territory given up for the creation of Hyde Park

On April 22, 1868, the new Town of Hyde Park was incorporated out of land coming from Dorchester, Milton and Dedham.  The town was annexed to the City of Boston in 1912.

The red box in the illustration shows the territory given to Hyde Park.  The map is from 1850.  You can see Mattapan Square at the right.

By 1800, Dorchester thought its territory was settled.  Towns to the south had split off over 170 years to create Milton, Stoughton, part of Walpole, part of Wrentham, Stoughtonham, Foxborough, Sharon, Canton, Avon and part of Bridgewater.  Then in 1804 a bitter battle resulted in the loss of South Boston to the City of Boston.  In 1854 Dorchester lost the Washington Village (Andrew Square) area to Boston as well.  In 1868 the relatively undeveloped western end of Dorchester was given up for the creation of Hyde Park.  The remainder is what we know today, including many villages from Mattapan Square to Neponset to Upham’s Corner to Columbia Point.

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Dorchester Illustration 2475 Walter Baker Old Stone Mill

Posted on September 20, 2020 by earltaylor

2475 Second Old Stone Mill Baker Chocolate

Dorchester Illustration no. 2475   Walter Baker Old Stone Mill

The stone building at the left of the photo was known as the Old Stone Mill on the west side of Adams Street next to the Neponset River.  Built in 1849, it replaced an earlier stone mill building on the same site.  The top of Walter Baker’s Pierce Mill building appears in the distance on the east side of Adams Street.  The Pierce Mill was constructed in 1872, so the photographs is no earlier than that year.

The early wooden mill building on this site was replaced in 1813 by Edmund Baker with a building constructed of granite blocks.  The building was used for the manufacture of woolen cloth and satinette, a cotton product with a satin-like finish, as well as for the manufacture of chocolate. The building was destroyed by fire in 1848, and Walter Baker built a new stone building (the one in the photograph), to be used as a cacao roasting mill.  In 1891 the building was replaced by the Baker Mill building, a brick building designed by Winslow and Wetherell in the Romanesque Revival style.

The Baker Mill building, built in 1891, now houses residential condominiums, where an individual unit may sell for  many times the cost of construction of the whole six-story building: $135,000.

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Dorchester Illustration no. 2474 Which came first: the trolley or the cemetery?

Posted on September 13, 2020 by earltaylor

2474 Cedar Grove cemetery with trolley going through

Dorchester Illustration no. 2474     Which came first: the trolley or the cemetery?

The photo, showing the trolley line between the parts of the Cedar Gove Cemetery, was taken by Herbert Stier in 1949.

Which came first, the trolley or the cemetery?  The short answer is the cemetery.

The first railroad line through Dorchester, which was in operation by 1845, was the Old Colony along the eastern edge of the town, a right of way now used by the T to Quincy and beyond.  The following year the Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad was incorporated to run from the Neponset station of the Old Colony to Mattapan Square.

The concept of a cemetery near the Neponset was approved in 1868.   The name of Cedar Grove Cemetery was officially adopted in January, 1869, and the first cemetery lot was sold in May, 1870.

In 1872 the Old Colony and Newport Railway Corporation built the Shawmut Branch Railroad, a steam railroad, as a connection between the Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad near the Neponset River.  This line is the branch that leads to Fields Corner, Shawmut and Ashmont, then on to join the Dorchester and Milton Branch railroad at the southern edge of the Cedar Grove Cemetery and leads on to Mattapan Square.  The Act to Incorporate the Shawmut Railroad Company was passed by the Massachusetts legislature June 22, 1870.  The act gave Edmund P. Tileston (who had paper factories at Mattapan), Henry L. Pierce (who owned the Baker Chocolate Co.) and Franklin King (a major property owner in Dorchester) the right to locate, construct, maintain and operate a railroad with one or more tracks, commencing at some convenient point on the Neponset River  … crossing in its course the Milton Branch Railroad and the Cedar Grove Cemetery …

After the electrification of the T in 1926, the part of the Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad that traveled eastward to Neponset experienced less traffic and later fell into disuse.  Its route was approximately that of the current bike-path.

check out www.dorcheteratheneum.org and www.dorchesteratheneum2.org

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Dorchester Illustration 2473 Meisel Press Manufacturing Company

Posted on September 6, 2020 by earltaylor

2473 Meisel Press plan 1913

Dorchester Illustration no. 2473      Meisel Press Manufacturing Company

Francis Meisel, born in 1846,  was the son of August Meisel, a lithographer.  The family emigrated from Germany, and Francis became a US citizen in 1880.  Francis Meisel organized the Meisel Press and Manufacturing Co. in 1903 for the manufacturing of machinery for the printing industry and erected the building soon thereafter.  The building appears in the 1904 Bromley atlas.   The building, which is located at the corner of Dorchester Avenue and Crescent Avenue, is now known as the DNA lofts, a condominium complex of 59 units..  The Society recently received a gift of a plan and elevation from 1913 of the building from attorney Stuart Schrier on behalf of the Raimondi family.

The company manufactured machinery for making paper, slitting and rewinding and for lithography printing.

Francis lived at 10 Upland Avenue from 1903 until his death in 1917..

The following is from

Inland Printer , Volume 58, October 1916 to March 1917. (Chicago, 1917), 818

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=8QchAQAAMAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA45

Francis Meisel, 1846-1917.

In the death of Francis Meisel, president of the Meisel Press Manufacturing Company of Boston, Masachusetts, the printing world has lost one of its most prominent men.  Mr. Meisel was born in Baden German, on January 10, 1846, being one of eight children.  His father was the owner of a flour-mill, and at the age of seventeen the young Meisel, upon the death of his father, took up the business, conducting it until1865, when he went to Munich, where he served an apprenticeship was a millwright.  In 1870, when twenty-four years old, he came to America and settled in Boston, his first employment being with B. F. Sturtevant, the founder of the Sturtevant Blower Works, who was then in business in a small way on Sudbury street, Boston.  The next year he started in business on First Street, Boston, and there began to build machinery for the lithographic trade and Kidder presses by contract.

In 1884, Mr. Meisel consolidated with the Kidder Press Company, then located in Roxbury.  For a few years he was superintendent, after holding the office of president and general manager. It was while associated with this company that he began making inventions for specialty printing.  He was especially interest in color-work and designed the press which printed the first high-class colored supplement, issued by the Boston Herald on May 30, 1896.  In 1903 he organized the Meisel Press Manufacturing Company and erected the present factory building in Dorchester.  With the assistance of his nephew, Charles A. Meisel, and his son, Otto C. F. Meisel, a business was developed which is known the world over. These two young men have carried the burden of the company’s affairs during the past few years and will continue the business under the same firm-name.

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Dorchester Illustration 2472 James John Slater

Posted on August 30, 2020 by earltaylor

2472 James John Slater Boston Globe May 12, 1939

Dorchester Illustration no. 2472      James John Slater

World War 1 biography

By Camille Arbogast

James John Slater was born on July 1, 1897, at 74 Bromley Street in Roxbury. His father, James Blanchard, a printer, was born in Moncton, New Brunswick; his mother Mary Belle (Campbell) was born in Pleasant Bay, Nova Scotia. James, Sr., and Mary married in Boston in 1894. They had seven other children: Mary Lois born in 1896, George Kenneth in 1899, Mildred in 1900, William in 1902, Edward in 1905, Lillie in 1908, and Irene in 1916. Edward died in 1906 of complications of teething, measles, and possible meningitis.

During James’s childhood his family moved regularly. In 1900, they lived at 53 East Lenox Street in the South End. The next year they moved a few blocks to 44 Lenox Street. In 1902, they relocated again, this time to Jamaica Plain, living at 13 Oakdale Street. They were living in Mattapan in 1904, where they resided at 32 Rockville Street (today’s Rexford Street). By 1906, they had returned to Roxbury, to 2680 Washington Street. In 1907 and 1908 they appeared in the Boston directory back in Dorchester at 14 Johnson Terrace. The 1910 census recorded the family in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where James, Sr., was the foreman of the pressroom at the New England Automobile Journal. The next year, the Slaters returned to Massachusetts, and lived at 158 Boston Street in Dorchester. Finally, in 1913, they moved to 20 Ballard Street in Jamaica Plain.

James enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard on April 6, 1915. He was studying at Northeastern College “when war broke out,” according to a newspaper article. He reported for duty on July 25, 1917, and mustered on July 31, serving as a saddler in Field Hospital #1 of the 26th Division. On September 7, 1917, he sailed for Europe, departing from Hoboken, New Jersey, on the USAT Henry R. Mallory. In October, James was transferred to Field Hospital 104.

In France, James volunteered to participate in a trench fever medical study. According to a newspaper article published after the war, “Trench fever was one of the greatest worries of the medical service of the Allied Armies. At times its ravages incapacitated as high as 40 percent of some combatant units. Almost 90 percent of all sickness in the armies was attributed to this disease.” The illness caused a high fever which lasted a few days, followed by repeated relapses, sometimes recurring for years. The illness could also cause “complications which are either disabling or fatal such as weak hearts, disordered livers or kidneys, bad eye sight, etc.”

The volunteers selected for the experiment were largely from the 26th Division; according to a government publication about the study, the men were drawn primarily “from field hospitals and ambulance organizations, units commonly designated as noncombatant.” James later implied that as a further inducement to participate in the study, men were promised a five-week furlough in the United States. The participants selected had to be extremely healthy and were given a month of “rigorous training” to ensure their bodies were in the best physical shape possible.

In January 1918, James and the other volunteers were transferred to a hospital in Saint Pol, Pas de Calais. The study began in February. Some men were injected with blood taken from trench fever cases; others were infected by lice bite, administered via a box strapped to their arms containing lice collected from the uniforms of trench fever sufferers. Men in the control groups were either subjected to the bites of disease free-lice, or were not exposed in any way but otherwise lived under the same conditions as the rest of the men in the study.

James, participant number 56, was among the men inoculated with infected blood, in his case from “washed blood corpuscle from [participant] No. 35.” In seven days, he was ill with trench fever. First he had a slight headache, which gradually increased, followed by “malaise,” then “pain in back and legs.” After his initial illness, he experienced a “short sharp relapse every six days.” The first and second relapses were more intense than the original attack. During one of his relapses, James reported he felt “depressed as though he could not work.” The next day he was “very miserable yesterday afternoon and through the night with severe headache, backache and shin pains.” With such pain, he had trouble sleeping. Beginning with his third relapse, recurrences of the disease began to decrease in severity. In the midst of the study, the hospital, only six miles from the British front lines, was shelled by the Germans. On March 27, the study had to move to Neuilly.

The study proved that trench fever was an infectious disease primarily transmitted by lice. A government article announcing the study’s findings praised the participants. “It is no mean thing that these volunteers did in France. To face illness of weeks, with extreme suffering, requires peculiar valor. The average loss of weight for these men was from 20 to 25 pounds. … It is believed by the Army Medical Corps that the sacrifice of this group of 66 men will in time lead to the protection of thousands of men from the ravages of trench fever.” General John J. Pershing commended the men, citing them “For exceptionally meritorious and conspicuous services.” Major Richard P. Strong, who led the experiment, “recommended the men for the Distinguished Service Medal.” General Headquarters “refused to award the medal because the service of the volunteers was not of the type which the medal was intended to reward.”

On April 25, 1918, James returned to the 26th Division, “fit for duty,” and was given work as kitchen police. The study checked in on him in early May. He reported he “gets tired easily, and feels that he is not as strong as was a week ago.” He had lumbar pain, especially when he bent forward and stood back up. He remained with the 26th Division, assigned to the 104th and 101st Field Hospitals for the rest of the war. On April 6, 1919, James sailed from Brest, France, on the SS Winifredian, arriving in Boston on April 18, 1919. He was discharged at Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts, on April 29.

After the war, James lived with his family. During his service they had moved to 6 Ripley Road in Dorchester. In 1920, James was a salesman at an electrical company. In the 1920s, James wanted to become an immigration inspector and attempted to take the Civil Service exam. His “disability”—either his exposure to trench fever, or the recurring health problems due to it—were regarded by the government “as too great even to permit him to take the examination.” In 1922, he and his family moved to 145 Bowdoin Street.

On September 16, 1922, James married Alexandra Scott Christie of Allston. Alexandra was a clerk and a graduate of Brighton High School. They were married in Quincy, Massachusetts, by Reverend G. Vaughn Shedd, of the Quincy Atlantic Methodist Episcopal Church. James and Alexandra had a daughter, Phyllis, born in 1923 in South Weymouth.

In the mid-1920s, the Slaters lived in Quincy. At the end of the decade, they moved to the Worcester area, living in Shrewsbury in 1929 and at 51 Institute Road, Worcester, in 1930. James was the manager of an electrical store. By 1931, they had returned to the Boston area and were living in the Wollaston neighborhood of Quincy, where they remained through the 1930s: first at 169 Fenno Street, then 22 Florence Street, and finally 143 Phillips Street.

In 1939, Congressman Lawrence J. Connery of Lynn sought official recognition for the trench fever study participants. It seems there was still some uncertainty about how to honor veterans whose contributions were not made on the battlefield. A newspaper article about the Congressman’s efforts explained, “The House Military Affairs Committee wishes to be sure that it will make no mistake if it recommends a medal for [the participants] … Congress wants proof that their service was ‘beyond and above the ordinary call of duty.” In the article, James revealed that over the past twenty years he had continued to experience a “weak back” and “periodic, severe headaches.” James was not interested in any new, special recognition that might be created to honor the men, telling the reporter, “The army recognizes three medals, the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal. Those medals rate with the army and no others do. Now if what we did is worth anything it is worth one of those recognized awards. If it is not worthy of one of those medals it is not worth anything. A special medal, it seems to me, would not mean a thing to anybody, and I say the hell with it. But if they want to give us one of the regular medals, then that is all right. The thing that still makes me sore is that we didn’t get the five weeks furlough to the United States that they absolutely promised us when we volunteered.”

In 1940, James was living on Willow Street in Quincy, employed as a traveling salesman of electrical equipment. At some point, he and Alexandra had divorced. By 1942, he had moved to 113 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. That year, on his World War II draft registration, he also reported a temporary address: The Braznell Hotel in Miami Beach, where he was staying for business.

In the early 1940s, he married Katherine A. (Muller) Hurley in Boston. Katherine, who had been born in Pennsylvania and grew up in Massachusetts, had also been married before. In the mid-1940s, James and Katherine lived at 61 Sheffield Road in the Newtonville section of Newton, Massachusetts. In the early 1950s, they resided in Brookline, Massachusetts. They then moved to Weston, Massachusetts, where they lived at 7 Columbine Road. In 1962, they relocated to Florida.

James died on May 24, 1969, at the Beach Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Funerals were held for him at the Jordan Thomas Garden Chapel in Florida and the Waterman Chapel in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Boston. He had been a Past Commander of the FLA, East Coast Chapter- Yankee Division Veterans Association, as well as active with the YD Club of Boston. He was also a member of Masonic Lodge, Dorchester Lodge F. and AM; Knights Templar of Boston, Aleppo Temple; the Royal Order of Jesters Court No 103; and past Patron of Eastern Star, Boston.

Sources

“Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915,” database; FamilySearch.org

Family Trees; Ancestry.com

1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 US Federal Census; Ancestry.com

Boston, Pawtucket, Worcester directories, various years; Ancestry.com

Service Notes

Lists of Outgoing & Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, The National Archives at College Park, MD; Ancestry.com

Holt, Carlyle. “Vets Who Lost Health as ‘Guinea Pigs,’ Not Keen About Medal Now,” Boston Globe, 12 May 1939; Newspapers.com

“How Sixty-Six U.S. Soldiers Risked Their Lives in Submitting to Trench Fever Tests,” Official Bulletin, Washington DC: Committee on Public Information, 18 June 1918: 1-2; Books.Google.com

Strong, Richard P. Trench Fever: Report of Commission, Medical Research Committee, American Red Cross. American Red Cross Society/Oxford University Press, 1918; Archive.org

“Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915,” database; FamilySearch.org.

“Yankee Division Hero Takes Allston Bride,” Boston Globe, 17 Sept 1922: 7; Newspapers.com

Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

“To These Farewell,” Fort Lauderdale News, 26 May 1969: 13; Newspapers.com

Deaths, Boston Globe, 27 May 1969: 35; Newspapers.com

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Dorchester Illustration 2471 August Stein Atwood

Posted on August 23, 2020 by earltaylor

2471 August Stein Atwood

Dorchester Illustration no. 2471      August Stein Atwood

World War 1 biography

By Camille Arbogast

August Stein Atwood was born on April 2, 1892, at 61 Alban Street in Dorchester. His father, Harrison Henry Atwood, was born in Londonderry, Vermont, and grew up in Boston. His mother, Clara (Stein), was a Bostonian whose parents had immigrated from Germany. Harrison and Clara were married on September 11, 1889. They also had an older son, Harrison, Jr., born in 1890.

Harrison, Sr., was an architect. In 1889, he was appointed Architect for the City of Boston, a position he held until 1891. Among his works are the Congress Street Fire Station, the Bowditch School in Jamaica Plain, the Harvard Avenue Fire Station, the Roxbury Memorial School, and the Boston Clerical High School. Harrison, Sr., designed the Atwood family home at 61 Alban Street. Built in 1888, it is a large Shingle-style house, 4,826 square feet, with 16 rooms, lavish finish work, and entertaining spaces—including a third floor ballroom. Harrison, Sr., was also a politician, serving as a United States congressman from 1895-1897. Before and after his federal service, he served a number of terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

August graduated from the Henry L. Pierce School in 1906. In the autumn of 1911, he entered Dartmouth College, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in November 1915. After he graduated, he was employed at the Massachusetts State House as an assistant examiner.

On November 10, 1914, August enlisted in the National Guard in Boston, serving in Company C, 1st Corps Cadets, Boston. In March 1917, he was attached to the Quartermaster Detachment of the Massachusetts National Guard, based in Allston. August was made a sergeant on May 16 and promoted to sergeant first class on September 28, 1917. By the time of his second promotion, his unit had been reorganized as Headquarters Troop, 26th Division. The reorganization occurred in August; on August 6, he reported for duty, mustering the next day.

August departed for overseas service on October 9, 1917, sailing from New York City, on the RMS Baltic. In late April 1918, the Boston Post published a letter August wrote to his father from France: “I have been travelling quite extensively since I wrote you last…and have seen a good bit of La Belle France, which is very rightly named, for it is a very beautiful country. It seems a sacrilege that this beautiful land should have suffered so much at the hands of the Hun horde. They have certainly made wreckage of a good part of the country, and the homes, and in fact everything that once stood. It has been very interesting here, and I can assure you that I wouldn’t have missed it for anything in the world. The boys back home don’t even guess what they are missing. Every day something new turns up to keep the spice in one, and helps one forget about home and family. Our troops are surpassing all hopes in their work at the front, both the infantry and artillery. In fact every branch of the service in France is acquitting itself nobly, and is being recognized by the French government in citations and medals of honor. It is a wonderful feeling to know that your own bunch is going like old veterans, and making them all sit up and take notice.” August was appointed a 2nd lieutenant on October 20, 1918; promoted to first lieutenant on February 22, 1919, he was assigned to Disbursing. He sailed for the United States on March 27, leaving from Brest, France on the USS Mount Vernon, arriving in Boston on April 4. He was discharged at Camp Devens, in Ayer, Massachusetts, on April 29, 1919. August continued to serve in the Massachusetts National Guard, and in 1921, was major in the Commonwealth’s Quartermaster Corps.

On September 11, 1920, August married teacher Elizabeth N. Bradbury in Quincy, Massachusetts. The ceremony took place in Elizabeth’s sister’s home, 8 Miller Stile Road. Elizabeth had been born in Somerville, Massachusetts, though at the time of her marriage, she was living with her parents in Freedom, New Hampshire. The couple were married by Reverend Charles L. Noyes of Somerville. The next evening, they embarked on a “wedding trip by auto.” Their son, John, was born in 1923.

After their marriage, August and Elizabeth lived at 91 Alban Street, which Harrison, Sr., had designed. August’s brother and his wife lived in the other half of the house, which was near to their parents who still lived at number 61. By 1940, August and Elizabeth had moved to 32 Laurel Avenue in the Wellesley neighborhood of Wellesley Hills. Harrison, Sr., lived with them.

August had a number of jobs. In 1920, he was the office manager of a confectionery business. In 1924, during prohibition, “representing Vineyard Products,” he applied for a license “of the Fourth Class to sell intoxicating liquors as a dealer.” By 1930, he was a salesman at a lumber wholesale company. Ten years later, August was the floor manager of a Morris Plan Bank, a bank that specialized in making “small loans to moderate income families.” In 1942, August was working for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at 100 Nashua Street in Boston, serving as the Second Assistant Commissioner of Mental Health.

Throughout his life he was very active with the Massachusetts Republican party.

In February 1944, August began suffering from ill health. He died at Faulkner Hospital, in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, on July 29, 1944. His funeral was held at Waterman Chapel in Boston. August was a member of the Wellesley Club and Dartmouth Alumni Association of Wellesley.

Sources

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Ancestry.com

Family Trees; Ancestry.com

“61 Alban St,” Dorchester Athenaeum 2; <https://dorchesteratheneum2.wordpress.com/61-alban-street/>

Ravgiala, Gail. “Home of the Week: A Contrarian’s Design,” Boston Globe, 7 January 2007: 70; Newspapers.com

1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 US Federal Census; Ancestry.com

Documents of the School Committee of the City Boston For the Year 1906. Boston: Municipal Printing Office, 1906: 52; Archive.org

Catalogue of Dartmouth College, 1911-1912. Hanover, NH: Printed for the College, 1911: HathiTrust.org

“The October Meeting of the Trustees,” The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. November 1915; HathiTrust.org

“Dartmouth Boys Meet in France,” Boston Post, 28 April 1918: 9; Newspapers.com

Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.

Lists of Outgoing & Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, The National Archives at College Park, MD; Ancestry.com

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Annual Report of the Adjutant General for the Year Ending December 31, 1920. Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co, State Printers, 1920: 160; Ancestry.com

“Maj Atwood and Miss Bradbury Married,” Boston Globe, 12 Sept 1920: 7; Newspapers.com

“Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915,” database, FamilySearch.org

“Applications for Licenses” [Legal Notices], Boston Globe, 19 Sept 1924: 24; Newspapers.com

Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

“Morris Plan Banks,” Wikipedia.org, last edited 12 July 2020. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Plan_Banks>

“August S. Atwood,” Boston Globe, 30 July 1944: 27; Newspapers.com

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Dorchester Illustration 2470 Charles C. Yancey

Posted on August 16, 2020 by earltaylor

2470 Charles Yancey

Dorchester Illustration no. 2470      Charles C. Yancey

In our efforts to document the recent history of Dorchester, we hope to present biographies of some of Dorchester’s living personalities. We are calling this occasional series: Diverse Dorchester.

Biography of Charles C. Yancey by Edward M. Cook

No history of Dorchester would be complete without the story of the life of Charles C. Yancey.  As the first City Councilor for District 4 from 1983-2016, he reigns as the longest, consecutively serving municipal elected official in the history of Boston.  In an era before Boston became a city with majority of people of color, when very few citizens of color had run for office, Charles Yancey worked for John D. O’Bryant for School Committee and himself ran for Congress, Massachusetts State Auditor, City Council and, later, for Mayor. During his time in office he was in the vanguard as a champion of  issues and causes that have become mainstream in the Boston, Massachusetts and the United States: police body cameras, independent civilian review boards for police, divestment of apartheid South Africa by Boston, employment and workforce development, the damage of racism, desegregation of public education, prohibiting smoking in public places, LGBTQ+ and transgender rights, etc.  He was a consistent partner with progressive coalitions on the Council throughout his career.

Charles Yancey is a lifelong resident of Boston.  He was born (December 28, 1948) to Howell Yancey, Sr. and Alice W. Yancey in Roxbury, the sixth of nine children. Charles credits the civic activism of his parents as the inspiration for his desire to serve: Howell was a union activist and his mother a contributor to multiple education organizations.

Charles attended the Philip Brooks Elementary School, the Patrick T. Campbell Junior High School, and Boston Technical High School. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Tufts University in 1970, a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University in 1991 and an Honorary Doctor of Law from Mt. Ida College in 2001.  One of his ancestors fought in the legendary civil war 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.

Incorporated as a city in 1909, Boston had several forms of council bodies.  Beginning in 1951, all city council seats were at-large, leading to a whites-only council, until the election of Tom Atkins in 1967 and Bruce C. Bolling in 1981. Yancey’s election in 1983 was part a turning point in Boston’s city council politics.  That election was the first to elect city councilors from 9 geographic districts as well as four at-large seats.  Yancey had run twice under the old system and was a leader in promoting the more inclusive system as a spokesman for the Campaign for District Representation.

Charles Yancey’s career was overflowing with activity and leadership in public office and in his community from being president of his high school Junior Achievement Company to the creation of the annual Charles C. Yancey Book Fair that provided and estimated 700,000 books to Boston children since 1987.  “The whole point of this book fair is to encourage a sense of independent learning on the part of all the people of Boston,” Yancey said.

Councilor Yancey initiated numerous infrastructure projects during his years in office.  These included the building of a new police station on Blue Hill Avenue, the Mattapan Branch Library, the Gallivan Community Center, Alston Public Library (Co-Sponsor), Hyde Park Police Station reopening, and the Mildred Avenue Community Center. He fought for the rapid transit stops that were added in Dorchester along the Fairmont Line.

In addition, he sponsored and passed numerous Home Rule petitions, ordinances, orders and resolutions that benefitted his district, other districts and the city as a whole.  These included: crossing gates for BPS buses, the ban on free cigarette samples, the South African Divestment ordinance, the Parental School Leave Ordinance, the HIV/AIDS State of Emergency Resolution, Human Rights Commission (Co-sponsor), renaming of Franklin Field to Harambee Park, naming of the Alston Library in honor of Brian Honan, the establishment of the Sister City Relationship between Boston and Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana, free bullet proof vests for Boston Police officers.

Along with his position as a Councilor for District 4, he served as Council President and was a leader in multiple community organizations: the National League of Cities Board of Directors, and the Massachusetts Coastal Resources Advisory Board and the South End Tenants Association. National Leadership Forum, The Codman Square Community Development Corporation, The Greater Roxbury Development Corporation, ABCD, United Way, Massachusetts Democratic State Committee, Delegate or Alternate to several National Democratic Conventions. His leadership included organizations that benefitted the African American community: President of the National Black Caucus of Black Elected Officials, President of the Black Political Task Force. Councilor Yancey supported and participated in all of the festivals, parades and celebrations that honor the many communities of Dorchester and Boston: Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Caribbeans, Irish, Haitians, Gay Pride, Bunker Hill Day, Dorchester Day, etc. During his time in office he met and interacted with people who achieved fame in politics, sports, entertainment and civil rights, too many to list.

His background in business, community development and economics led him to positions of leadership as the Director of the Office of Management and Finance for the Executive Office of Community Development of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Director of Economic Development for the Circle Venture Capital Fund, the Director of Administration for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Director of Business Development for the UDI Community Development Corporation in Durham North Carolina.

Charles and his wife, Marzetta have been married for more than fifty years.  Marzetta and Charles are the proud parents of four children Charles, Jr., Derrick, Sharif, and Ashley.  The Yancey’s family value of education was transmitted to their children, who all graduated from the Boston Public Schools (Snowden International School, Boston Latin Academy, Boston Latin School and the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science). All of his children went on to college attending University of Massachusetts, Wentworth University, Tufts University and Simmons University. Charles and Marzetta  are blessed with seven grandchildren and have lived on Hooper Street in Dorchester since 1975.

Councilor Yancey sums up his career in public service by saying, “While I did not prevail in every race, I was willing to get into the arena and fight for what I believed in.  I lost some and I won some but I never regretted exercising my constitutional right to run. Every time I voted I thought about how it affected everyone in the city, not just my district, and I also considered how the vote affected future generations.

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Dorchester Illustration 2469 Sturtevant Mill Company

Posted on August 9, 2020 by earltaylor

2469 Thomas L. Sturtevant composite

Dorchester Illustration no. 2469      Sturtevant Mill Company

The following is from:

https://sturtevantinc.com/about/   accessed July 29, 2020

Thomas L. Sturtevant recognized the need for mechanization in the fertilizer industry and founded the Sturtevant Mill Company in the state of Main in 1883.  His first unit was a Rock Emery Mill.  Not long before the turn of the 19th century [sic], the company moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts, where it remained until 1998 when it moved to its current location in Hanover, Massachusetts.

And idea ahead of its time.

In an effort to limit human exposure to harmful fumes and acids common to the process involved in the manufacture of fertilizers, Mr. Sturtevant designed the Mechanical Den and Excavator, a machine that would revolutionize the batch processing of super phosphate.

In the early 1900s, the Company advanced designs for crushing and grinding, blending and mixing, and related materials-handling equipment. A venture into the automotive field began in 1904 when T. J. Sturtevant designed an automatic transmission. Together with the Sturtevant-designed internal combustion, automatic lubrication, vacuum brakes, and a body manufactured by another firm, the Sturtevant Automatic Automobile, the world’s first automatic, was marketed for upwards of six thousand dollars.

Further engineering skill led to the development of the Air Separator.  At this same time, the science of cement manufacture was evolving. In 1930, a contest between Sturtevant and another important manufacturer for the favor or a major cement producer proved the Sturtevant unit superior.  For the next several decades, the “Closed Circuit” method of making cement was dominant, and the Sturtevant Air Separators helped lead the way.

During World War II, Sturtevant participated n the defense effort by making parts for local naval yards.  In addition, Sturtevant was given high priority to secure materials for the manufacture of its equipment for use n the chemical industries  In the post war era, the cement industry grew continually, calling for more Air Separators.  In the later 1950s, massive reconstruction an expansion n that industry caused Sturtevant to work at a feverish pace to meet the demands of its customers.

During the 1930s, Sturtevant introduced an ultrafine grinder, the Micronizer®. This fluid energy mill opened up many new ad promising markets.  The same decade saw the development of two more pulverizers which were intermediate to the older crushers and the Micronizer®, representing a relatively new concept of fine grinding by impact.

In 1972, Sturtevant acquired the North Attleboro Foundry, in North Attleboro, Massachusetts.

The tradition of family management has been maintained at Sturtevant, Inc. from its inception to the present T. L. Sturtevant was its manager from its founding to 1920, followed by his son Laurance H. Sturtevant, whose grandson, William Sturtevant English, has occupied the position of the Chairman of the Board since the death of his father, Clayton F. English, in 1978.  The company is headquartered in Hanover, Massachusetts.

Note: this is not the B. F. Sturtevant Company that had a plant in Hyde Park.

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Dorchester Illustration 2468 Whaling Ship Charles Carroll

Posted on August 2, 2020 by earltaylor

2468 Whaling Ship the Charles Carroll

Dorchester Illustration no. 2468      Whaling Ship the Charles Carroll

In the 1830s a syndicate was formed with facilities at Commercial Point to make a profit from whale and cod fishing.

The following paragraph is from “Captain John Codman, William D. Codman, John & Richard Codman” in Other Merchants and Sea Captains of Old Boston (Boston,  State Street Trust Company, 1919.

“Their goal was to whale in the Pacific, Indian, and North Atlantic oceans. The ships bought by the company were the “Charles Carroll,” of Nantucket; “Courier,” “Herald,” and bark “Lewis,” plus they equipped twenty schooners, of which two—the “Belle” and “the Preston”—were built at the Point.  They purchased not only the wharf, but quite a tract of land in its immediate vicinity, where they put flakes for the drying of their codfish.  They also built some cooper-shops and a store for the supply of sailors’ outfits and ship chandlery.  The store was built from the material that came from the granary building which formerly occupied the site of the present Park Street Church in the city proper.”

William C. Codman is cited in William Dana Orcutt. Good Old Dorchester. (Cambridge, 1893), 178-179″

“I well remember the arrival of the ‘Charles Carroll.’  The wharf at the Point was lined with carriages coming from great distances, containing relatives or friends of the Jack Tars [who had been away for 4 years].  When every sail had been furled, they were allowed to go ashore. Anxious parents, brothers and sisters awaited them.  The Jacks climbed over the side to rush to their relatives’ embraces…”

The following is from the Nantucket Historical Association

https://nha.org/nha-acquires-unique-and-heavily-illustrated-josiah-c-long-logbook-of-the-nantucket-built-whaleship-charles-carroll/

In November, 2018, the Nantucket Historical Association announced the major acquisition of the Josiah C. Long logbook from his 1848-52 voyage as captain aboard the Nantucket-built whaleship Charles Carroll. Long’s logbook is distinguished by the number of drawings depicted with nearly 300 of ships, flags, whales, sea life, and landscapes all done by hand. The drawings have a particular folk nature to them and the style is lively and playful.

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