Dorchester Historical Society

Dorchester Illustration 2425 Robert Chamblet Hooper

Posted on October 6, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2425 Robert Chamblet Hooper

In the 19th century many sea captains had a Dorchester connection. Recently we posted some comments about Enoch Train. Today we see another captain.

Captain Robert Chamblet Hooper (1805-1869)

Robert Chamblet Hooper was born in Marblehead into a wealthy merchant family. He attended Phillips Academy, Andover, and entered the class of 1822 at Harvard at 13 years of age. After his second year at Harvard, he took a vacation aboard one of his father’s vessels, the brig Union. after visiting Gibraltar, Marseilles, Nice and other ports, he decided to obtain the remainder of his education at sea and traveled to Europe, the West Indies and south America until he was qualified as a captain and business manager of freights.

At the age of 20 he took the ship Walga to Russia. After that successful voyage, he was entrusted with a very large ship, the Arbella, of 400 tons. He retired from the sailing life and established himself as a merchant in Boston. He owned, bought and sold ships and other craft. He imported sugar and other commodities and even owned a share of Central Wharf and the whole of Constitution Wharf.

In 1845 he built a home in Dorchester and called it Oakland.

The following is from an article by Anthony Sammarco that appeared in the Dorchester Community News, January 11, 1991.

The land in Dorchester was composed of slight hills and valleys, with a superb view of Boston from the summit. It was chosen, according to Gertrude Hooper, his granddaughter, “so the sun would not blind him on the drive home from his Boston office.” He built a large and architecturally significant villa he named “Oakland,” and he entertained lavishly. He was probably among the most wealth residents of ningteenth-century Dorchester.

In 1869, the last year the town published a Taxable Valuation, his house alone was appraised at $40,000. The 20-acre estate was bounded by Dudley Street and Hartford Street. The Hooper Family retained ownership of Oakland after his death in the same year, but subdivided the estate over the next four decades.

Lingard Street was first known as Hooper Street in honor of the family. Robin Hood Street, Chamblett Street and Half Moon Street were laid out through the Hooper Estate, and substantial houses were built by well-to-do families. The aspects that had attracted Hooper to build in Dorchester were the same as those that attracted others in the early “Street Car Suburb” period: gentle slopes, outcroppings of puddingstone, superb views of Boston to the north and the Blue Hills to the south, and beautiful old oak trees.

The Hooper family had built and moved to a townhouse on Beacon Street in the Back Bay, but they held ownership of Oakland until 1911.

Then the house and the immediate land surrounding it was sold to the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. The house was adapted for use as the rectory of Saint Paul’s priests. In the 1930s, the stone church of Saint Paul’s was designed and built by Maginnis & Walsh, the architects of the archdiocese. The rectory was used until the late 1970s, when it was demolished and a smaller building was erected on the same site chosen by Hooper over a century before. The gentle slopes, the panoramic views, and the picturesque aspect of the area remain to this day, but the former estate of Robert Chamblett Hooper is no more.

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The Dorchester Historical Society’s historic houses are open on different dates. The Lemuel Clap House (1712 and remodeled 1765) at 199 Boston Street is open on the third Saturday of each month. The James Blake House, 735 Columbia Road (1661) and the William Clap House, 195 Boston Street (1806) are open on the third Sunday of each month. Open hours are 11 am to 4 pm.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Church, Dorchester, Lingard Street, Oakland, Robert Chamblet Hooper, Saint Paul, Sea Captain, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2424 David Herbert Copson

Posted on September 29, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2424 David Herbert Copson

At the Dorchester Historical Society, we are in the process of a year-long project to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of World War I. Using a collection of photographs we have of WWI Dorchester residents, we will be featuring servicemen in a number of short biographies throughout the year. At the culmination of the project, we hope to produce an online exhibit that highlights these men and their service to our country.

Our next biography features: David Herbert Copson

Written by Donna Albino

Note: The photo on the left is definitely of David Herbert Copson. The photo on the right is probably of him as well. If you have any knowledge of the Copson family, please let us know more information.

David Herbert Copson was born on November 9, 1895, in Watertown, Massachusetts. His parents were William Arthur Copson, an immigrant from England, and Rose Ann (Norton) Copson. The family was living in Cambridge by 1897, when David’s brother William was born, and the 1900 census listed their address as 12 Leonard Ave in Cambridge, bordering Inman and Harvard Squares. David’s sister Catherine was born in Cambridge in 1903, but by 1910 the family had relocated to 120 Brown Street in Roslindale. His father was a traveling salesman who sold crackers.

David registered for the draft on June 5, 1917, and his address was listed as 1173 Adams Street, Dorchester on his draft card. His parents, however, still lived in Roslindale. His draft card listed him as single, but he did marry Alvina Webb in 1917, and Alvina’s parents lived at the Adams Street address in the Lower Mills section of Dorchester. Their son, David, was born on June 16, 1918, so the young family may have chosen to live with Alvina’s parents in order to have help with the child while David joined the war effort.

David enlisted in the Great War on July 22, 1918. He was assigned to headquarters, 36th US Infantry Division of the US Army. The unit was sent to Europe in July 1918 and conducted major operations in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. In October, the unit participated in heavy combat near the village of St. Etienne. David was discharged from service on March 21, 1919 as part of the demobilization effort at the end of the war.

David rejoined his wife and son in Dorchester after the war. In the 1920 census, David, Alvina, and their son David were still living with Alvina’s parents and their six minor children at 1173 Adams Street. David was working as a stock clerk in a machine shop.

On September 28, 1927, at the age of 32, David was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Togus, Maine. The facility was established as the eastern branch of the National Asylum to provide care for volunteer soldiers who had been disabled during service in the Union forces of the American Civil War and expanded when WWI produced a new veteran population. David’s disability was listed as chronic myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle most often due to a viral infection. His admission form at the hospital revealed that David was then divorced, and living with his parents in Roslindale.

David was discharged from the asylum on June 30, 1928. He passed away in 1929. David’s son was also a veteran; he served as captain of a patrol torpedo (PT) boat in the Philippines during WWII and afterward, went on to live a very accomplished life. He was a PhD graduate of MIT, and worked as a researcher at Raytheon and a professor at the University of Puerto Rico. He passed away in 1999.

Sources:

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Marriage Index, 1901-1955 and 1966-1970 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Death Index, 1901-1980 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Year: 1900; Census Place: Cambridge Ward 2, Middlesex, Massachusetts; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0696; FHL microfilm: 1240656

Year: 1910; Census Place: Boston Ward 23, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T624_624; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 1615; FHL microfilm: 1374637

Year: 1920; Census Place: Boston Ward 21, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T625_739; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 525

Registration State: Massachusetts; Registration County: Suffolk; Roll: 1685013; Draft Board: 21

Ancestry.com. U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.

Wikipedia, 36th Infantry Division (United States)

Wikipedia, Myocarditis

The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) 08 Jun 1999, Tue page 70

Ancestry, Michaud Family Tree by vmichaud176

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged David Herbert Copson, Dorchester, Lower Mills, Uncategorized, War 1, World War 1, World War I | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2423 Christos John Alexander

Posted on September 22, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2423 Christos John Alexander

Our next biography features: Christos John Alexander Written by Julie Wolf

Christos John Alexander was born to Ionnis Alexandropou and Ekaterini Oikonomopolou in Stemnitsa, Greece. Spellings of the Greek names vary across documents, as does Christos’s birthdate, which appears as May 22, August 30, and September 26, 1889; January 12, 1890; and “about 1890.” Despite inconsistencies, errors, and his absence from census records, corroborating details gleaned from city directories, immigration, travel, and military files, and family members’ data allowed us to plot Christos’s course through life.

Between 1890 and 1924, 400,000-plus Greek immigrants came to the United States, primarily young men intending to earn money and return home. A 1911 naturalization document had Christos “Alexandra” of 127 “South” Avenue, Dorchester, arriving aboard the Francesca “around September 18, 1906.” However, a November 17, 1907, Francesca manifest includes a Christos Alexandropoulos, final destination 18 Lansing Street, Boston—Christos’s parents’ or sister Angeliki’s address on her 1907 marriage record. Elsewhere his arrival date appears as 1905.

Christos’s World War I draft card, filed in 1917, lists his address as 127 Southern Avenue, which he possibly shared with his mother, listed as a dependent. Of medium height and build, with brown eyes and “dark” hair, he was a fruit dealer at 30 Commercial Street, Boston, and claimed “rheumatism in knee and back” as an exemption from service. The exemption wasn’t granted, and on December 7, 1917, he enlisted at the Boston (now Charleston) Navy Yard. Over 267 days, he had four different postings as a mess attendant, 1st class: Receiving Ship in Boston (December 31, 1917-March 4, 1918); Headquarters Boston, Section Boston (March 4-7); Receiving Ship Boston (March 27-April 18); and finally, the Chelsea Naval Hospital (April 18-August 31, 1918, the date of his discharge). The card notes an unspecified “physical disability.”

Another naturalization document, dated 1924, shows Christos living at 6 Lyndhurst Street; he would become naturalized on June 21, 1926. In 1935, he was back on Southern Avenue, now at 111. His registration with the Selective Service as part of 1942’s “Old Man’s Draft” reveals yet another address: 34 Rosedale Street. He had aged, described as bald and wearing glasses, with a scar on the back of his neck. He identified the “person who will always know where you are” as his brother-in-law Kostas Karalekas, also of 34 Rosedale Street and formerly of 111 Southern. It seems the men lived and worked together from early on: in the 1910 census, Kostas identified himself as a “fruit dealer, employer,” Christos’s occupation as well.

Christos’s was a life in transit. According to his wife Antigoni’s 1949 naturalization petition, she and Christos married in Athens, not America, on November 29, 1936, and had a son, John, born in Greece on May 1, 1940. These dates indicate multiple voyages for Christos, as naturalized citizens were prohibited from living abroad for this length of time. On August 3, 1940, he arrived alone in New York aboard the Exmoor, returning to 34 Rosedale Street, his address per the 1942 and 1943 Boston city directories.

Christos vanished from the directories until 1951, but Antigoni’s immigration paperwork placed him at 17 Norfolk Street in Dorchester from at least 1946. In 1951, Antigoni and Christos, an “exporter,” still lived there.

On her visa, Antigoni had declared her “plans to reside permanently” here, but on August 30, 1952, Christos, 62, and his family sailed for Greece aboard the aptly named Homeland. At some point Christos came back, only to return to Greece in August 1954 aboard the Nea Hellas, with “the expectation of staying for a year.” On both legs of this sojourn, Christos again reported his address as 34 Rosedale Street. Apparently he gave up the Norfolk address after Antigoni’s departure. We confirmed one more voyage in 1958, when Christos and John, now 18, returned to America aboard the Olympia.

Perhaps no document reveals more about Christos’s life than the one filed upon his death: a State Department Report of the Death of an American Citizen. Christos died of a cerebral hemorrhage on December 30, 1972, nearly 83, in Athens’s Timios Stavros Clinic. His last known American address was in Lexington, Massachusetts, but when he died, Christos was “residing abroad with relatives”—likely Antigoni, who lived in New Smyrni, Athens. Around this time, their son lived in Poughkeepsie, New York, an employee at Vassar College.

In all his years in Dorchester, Christos never lived outside a quarter-mile radius of Codman Square, yet he and his family spent decades with an ocean between them. As was the case with so many of his countrymen, Christos appears to have come to America always intending to return home. In death, he did. Christos John Alexander was buried in the First Cemetery of Athens, in his homeland of Greece.

SOURCES:

Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006.

Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2002.

Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Marriage Records, 1840-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1798-1950 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Ancestry.com. Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1974 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1914-1966 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

Ancestry.com. U.S. Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005.

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

FamilySearch.org. Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915.

FamilySearch.org. “Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954,” database with images.

Guide to the Vassar College Biographical FIles, 1900-1983.

“Karalekas.” Boston Globe, August 26, 1949: 27.

Neighborhood of Dorchester, Boston Planning and Development Agency.

New England Historic Genealogical Society. Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915.

New England Historical Society. “How the Greek Immigrants Came to New England,” 2018.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Codman Square, Dorchester, Uncategorized, World War 1, world war one | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2422 Enoch Train

Posted on September 15, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2422 Enoch Train

The digital image of the portrait of Enoch Train was recently provided by a family descendant. The illustration of his house is from a period after he had sold the property.

Enoch Train purchased land on the south side of Centre Street in 1840 and in 1846, comprising more than 7 acres. As the property was subdivided, the portion with the main house was later owned by Charles Whitten, a property developer, and later still by the Charles J. Douglas Sanatoriuim before being purchased by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston. The 1933 map shows that the Seraphic Institute was housed there; now it is the St. Joseph Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.

The following comes from Some Ships of the Clipper Ship Era: Their Builders, Owners, and Captains. (Boston: State Street Trust Company, 1913).

Enoch Train was the foremost among the merchant ship-owners of his day, and at one time owned the largest number of ships of any firm in Boston, thirty or more of his vessels plying between this port and Liverpool. Having been brought up in the hide and leather store of his uncle, Samuel Train, his earliest ventures after he went into shipping on his own account were in the Russian and South American trades, importing principally hides.

A few years later, in 1844, he established the well-known Train line of packets to Liverpool, the first ship built being the “Joshua Bates,” named after the American partner of Baring Brothers at that time. This vessel was built for him at Newburyport by the celebrated ship-builder, Donald McKay. Mr. Train was so much pleased with this first vessel and with the skill of the builder that on the day she was launched he said to McKay, “You must come to Boston; we need you, and if you want any financial assistance in establishing a shipyard let me know, the amount and you shall have it.”

The rest is too well known to repeat. In rapid succession were launched the “Anglo Saxon;” “Anglo American,” “Washington Irving,” ”Ocean Monarch,” “Parliament,” “Star of the Empire,” “Chariot of Fame,” “Staffordshire,” “Cathedral,” and “John Eliot Thayer.” The “Staffordshire ” was lost at sea not far from this coast and many passengers were lost. It is stated that there were so few boats and panic-stricken people clung so desperately to the gunwales of the rowboats that one of the officers was obliged to chop off their fingers with a hatchet in order to save even a few of the passengers.

Another ship, the ”Ocean Monarch,” was bullied at sea with a loss of four hundred lives, and George Francis Train, a representative of the firm, in an account of his life, describes the pathetic scene he witnessed when the news was first announced in Boston. It was customary for the captain of each inward-bound vessel as she approached her dock to shout from the rail the latest news. On this occasion the “Persia” under Captain Judkins was about to dock, and hundreds of people were waiting to hear tidings of some friend or vessel. The captain shouted the sad fate of the “Ocean Monarch'” and within a few minutes the announcement was made in the Merchants Exchange.

The Train firm on another occasion believed the “Gov. Davis,” which ran on their Boston, New Orleans, Liverpool triangular route, had also been burned at sea, as word was received that “The ‘Gov. Davis’ is burned up.” While those in the counting-house were grieving over their losses of friends and cargo, another message was handed to them, changing the message to “The ‘Gov. Davis’ is bound up.” The vessel was safe in Boston Harbour and there was great rejoicing in the Train office. Another ship belonging to the firm, called “Break of Day,” came into Boston Harbour on a winter’s day without a spar standing. “The Chariot of Fame” was Train’s favorite vessel, her master being Captain Knowles. She had a reading-room on her quarter-deck for cabin passengers, a great luxury in those days.

Donald McKay also built for Mr. Train the “Flying Cloud,” “Empress of the Seas,” “Plymouth Rock,” which was half-owned by George B. Upton, and the “Lightning.” Some of Train’s captains were Caldwell, Thayer, Murdock, Brown, Richardson, Howard, and Knowles.

In 1855 the Boston & European Steamship Company was incorporated, with Enoch Train; George B. Upton, Donald McKay, Andrew T. Hall, and James M. Beebe as sponsors, “for the purpose of navigating the ocean by steam.” The plan was to build a splendid line of steamers, rivalling in every respect the well-known Collins line of New York, the English port to be Milford Haven in Wales.

“There is a vast difference,” he said, “between steam and sailing vessels,” and steam would not interfere with his regular business, the transportation of coarse and weighty commodities, and passengers who could not afford the luxury of steam passage. A large committee was appointed, but the panic of 1857 put a stop to all plans.

Frederic W. Thayer, a partner at one time of Mr. Train, established an office in Liverpool. Later he and Mr. George Warren formed a partnership under the name of Thayer & Warren, succeeding to the business of Enoch Train & Co. At a still later date the name was changed again to the well-known firm of Warren & Co. This latter firm still flies the Train private signal, a red ground with a white diamond, and was one of the first houses to appreciate the commercial importance of iron screw steamers.

Enoch Train at first had his counting-house at 37 Lewis Wharf, and later, about 1852, he bought Constitution Wharf for the use of his ships, moving his private office to State Street.

The naming of Train Street appears to come from Enoch Train. He owned property bordering on Adams Street, stretching to Tenean Creek.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Centre Street, Dorchester, Enoch Train, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2421 Levi Arthur LeCain

Posted on September 8, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2421 Levi Arthur LeCain

Our next biography features: Levi Arthur LeCain

Written by Julie Wolf

Levi Arthur LeCain was born on September 4, 1881, in Green River, Wyoming (then a territory), the third child of Joseph J. LeCain and Mary Amelia Cummings, both originally of Maine. A Civil War veteran, Joseph reenlisted in 1875 to fight the “Indian Wars” in Wyoming. At some point Mary joined him, and their three eldest sons were born there. Wyoming was railroad country, and “J. J. LeCain” served as Uinta County sheriff from 1882 to 1886. A 1916 Boston Globe article called him “an old Indian fighter and a former pal of ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody.” In 1886 or 1887, the family moved to Phillipsburg, Kansas, where Levi’s two younger brothers were born.

By 1900, the family was renting a home with two boarders and a relative at 384A Highland Avenue in West Somerville, Massachusetts. Both Levi, 18, and his older brother Sylvester were laundrymen. A year later Levi was a car conductor, as was his father. By 1903, Levi, his parents, and brother Leo had moved blocks away, to 410 Highland Avenue. Also living there was Caroline Mifflin, the Newfoundland native Levi married on November 25, 1903. They had four children: Edna (1904), Mildred (1907), Gertrude (1909), and Arthur (1911). The family lived there with Levi’s parents until at least 1908.

From 1910 through 1913, Levi, Caroline, and their children lived at 1156 Cambridge Street in Cambridge, where Levi’s occupation, according to the 1910 census, was “Teamster, milk wagon.” By 1915, the LeCains were renting a home in Dorchester, at 1071 Washington Street, Levi now a “driver.”

On July 3, 1916, Levi volunteered for military service at the 8th Regiment Camp at Framingham. Private LeCain was stationed with the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry Troop D in Fort Bliss, Texas, in the Mexican War (or Border War). It’s unknown whether he was home in January 1917, when 7-year-old Gertrude died from diphtheria. In July 1917 he was called up as part of the 3rd Pioneer Infantry. Stationed at South Carolina’s Camp Wadsworth, he rose to the rank of sergeant, and on August 30, 1918, set sail for France aboard the Umviea. Levi fought at Meuse-Argonne, Defensive Sector, for the war’s final year. Although his discharge record reports no injuries or disabilities, a newspaper item from the 1920s noted his “42 percent disability rating.”

After the war, Levi had several addresses in Dorchester, all on Washington Street: 1071 in 1920; 1059 in 1924; 1061 in 1925; and 1120 in 1929. Upon his return, he worked as a milk salesman for H. P. Hood & Sons at 24 Anson Street in Jamaica Plain. Levi’s work changed around 1922, when he became an “agent” for the Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals at Boston’s Angell Memorial Hospital, making headlines for his role in animal-cruelty cases.

Levi was a respected leader of the American Legion Old Dorchester Post No. 65. As commander, he oversaw the installation of a new Dorchester Boy Scout troop as well as the dedication of Neponset’s Garvey Playground, named for a soldier who died in the Argonne. Upon his retirement as commander in 1925, the Globe credited him with “[building] the post up to be one of the strongest in the state.” In November 1927, Levi ran, apparently unsuccessfully, for City Council in Ward 17, one of 22 men seeking election in Dorchester’s five wards.

At the time of his candidacy and on the 1930 census, Levi was a “purchasing agent and stable superintendent” for Hathaway Baking Company. From 1933 through 1935, Levi was president of the International Wall Texture Company at 110A Canal Street, but by 1938, he was a watchman in the Custodians Department at the South Postal Annex, with a residence of 68 Clarendon Street in Boston, no longer 1120 Washington Street, where Caroline remained; it appears they had stopped living together. In fact, Levi is absent from the 1940 census. Caroline then resided at 11 Butler Street in Dorchester, working as a live-in housekeeper for James E. Drever, a member and commander of Levi’s American Legion post. Only once more, in 1946, did Levi and Caroline share an address: 30 Bearse Avenue, Dorchester. This was still Caroline’s address in 1953, the year before Levi died.

Levi died at the Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts, on June 23, 1954. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. According to his interment papers, the plot next to his was reserved for Caroline. It would go unused. When Caroline died in 1965, she was buried in Everett’s Glenwood Cemetery, in the same plot as their daughter Gertrude.

SOURCES:

“22 Council Candidates in Five Dorchester Wards.” Boston Globe, November 4, 1927: 23.

Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004.

Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006.

Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2002.

Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Marriage Records, 1840-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Ancestry.com. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

Ancestry.com. U.S. Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com, Operations, Inc., 2016.

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Ancestry.com. U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Dorchester Atheneneum. Levi Arthur LeCain.

“Dorchester District.” Boston Globe, December 18, 1925: 11.

“Dorchester District.” Boston Globe, August 16, 1927: 8.

Find a Grave. Levi Arthur LeCain.

Fold3. Registers of Enlistments in the United States Army, compiled 1798-1914.

“Further History of Evanston, Wyoming.” WyomingGenealogy.com.

“Garvey Playground Named at Neponset: Athletic Field Is Dedicated to Soldier’s Memory.” Boston Globe, June 18, 1925: 6.

“Horses Enjoy Their Big Day: Christmas in Postoffice Sq.” Boston Globe, December 23, 1922: 1.

“Is a Cat a Beast?: Attorneys Argue Question in Dorchester Court.” Boston Globe, August 29, 1925: 16.

“LeCain.” Boston Globe, February 10, 1965: 23.

“Legends of Past Inhabit Home of Family Researcher.” Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer, January 23, 1984: 29.

Military Sites in Wyoming 1700-1920, Historic Context.

National Archives and Records Administration. U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2000.

“New Scout Troop for Dorchester: Formal Installation Will Be Held Sunday.” Boston Globe, November 14, 1925: 3.

“Old Dorchester Legion to Instal [sic] Officers Tomorrow.” Boston Globe, December 5, 1927: 3.

Phillipsburg Herald, April 16, 1891: 4.

Rea, Tom. “The Rock Springs Massacre,” WyoHistory.org, November 8, 2014.

“Says His Horse Was Not Lame, Only Awkward.” Boston Globe, April 8, 1926: 16.

“Two Months for Biting: William Campbell Sentenced for Depriving Capt. Joseph LeCain of a Little Finger.” Boston Globe, December 21, 1916: 5.

WYO4News. “The Rock Springs Massacre,” September 2, 2017.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dorchester, Levi Arthur LeCain, Uncategorized, World War 1, World War I, world war one | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2420 Clarence Clark

Posted on September 1, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2420 Clarence William Clark

The illustration is the only one we have, so if anyone has a better photograph of Clarence, please let us know.

Our next biography features: Clarence William Clark

Written by Camille Arbogast

Clarence William Clark was born on April 25, 1894, in Methuen, Massachusetts. His mother, Mary L. (McKibbon), was from Newcastle, New Brunswick; his father, Frank Herbert, was born in Haverhill, MA. Frank was a baker with his own bakery at 19 Hampshire Street in Methuen, which advertised, “Hot Rolls fresh every afternoon, Brown Bread and Beans Saturday night and Sunday Morning.” Mary and Frank married in 1893 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Lawrence. They also had three younger children: Mary, Katherine, and Paul. The family lived at 34 Lowell Street in Methuen.

By 1910, they moved to Canton, where they lived on Shuman Avenue. Frank continued to work as a baker. In June 1914, Mary died of uterine cancer. By that time, they were living at 119 Hollingsworth Street in Mattapan. Later the family moved to 1420 Blue Hill Avenue.

In May 1915, at age 21, Clarence enlisted in the National Guard. (It is possible that he had prior military service; a Boston Post article reported he had been in the military since 1912.) In June 1916, as a Sergeant in H Company, 9th Massachusetts Infantry, he served in El Paso, Texas, as a driver, chauffeuring officers along the Mexican border. According to the Boston Post, he thought “driving an automobile along Washington street on a busy afternoon is far more interesting.”

Around this time, Clarence married Gertrude C. Murphy, who lived up the street from the Clarks at 1416 Blue Hill Avenue. In 1917, Clarence was listed in the Boston directory residing at 1416 Blue Hill Avenue, working as a chauffeur. Clarence and Gertrude’s son, William F., was born in November 1917.

On March 25, 1917, Clarence reported for duty to serve in the First World War. On April 3, he mustered as a Sergeant in H Company, 9th Infantry, later reclassified as the 101st Infantry of the 26th Division, or Yankee Division. He departed for France on September 7, 1917, sailing from Hoboken, New Jersey on the USS Pastores. In early 1918, Clarence attended “the training school of officers on the firing lines in France,” and in February was promoted to Second Lieutenant. In June 1918, he was discharged to accept a commission. By the end of the war, he was serving as a First Lieutenant in the 214th Military Police Company. On May 25, 1919 he sailed from Brest, France, returning to the United States on the USS Freedom. He was discharged on July 15, 1919.

After the war, Clarence and Gertrude continued to live with her family at 1416 Blue Hill Avenue. They eventually had three more children: Doris, Marjorie, and Virginia. According to the census, in January 1920, Clarence was working as an automobile mechanic. He appears as a “Collector” in the 1922 and 1923 Boston directories. In April 1922, he was selected as Federal Prohibition enforcement agent in the Worcester District. A month later, a story headlined “Dry Sleuths Make Worcester Clean Up” told of Clarence and his team, undercover “as laboring men with a thirst that only liquor would quench,” operating stings in “former barrooms, hotels and other places,” catching those who violated the Volstead Act. In 1924, Clarence and his family moved to 11 Randolph Street in Mattapan. The next year, he was a candidate for City Council. In the 1927 directory his job changes to “Detective,” the occupation given for him into the 1930s. In 1931, his address appears as 11 Rector Road, Mattapan.

1933 is the last listing for Clarence W. Clark living at 11 Rector Road. Beginning in 1934, his wife appears at the 11 Rector Road address as Mrs. Gertrude Clark. She is listed this way throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In Boston directories in the 1960s and early 1970s, she is described as the widow of Clarence W. Clark and was still living at 11 Rector Road. When Gertrude died in 1978, her obituary described her as the “beloved wife of the late Clarence W. Clark.”

Clarence was not actually dead though, as it appears his marriage ended sometime in the 1930s; possibly Gertrude described herself as his widow to avoid social embarrassment. They may have been the Clarence W. and Gertrude Clark who divorced in Putnam County, Florida in 1953. On April 9, 1953, Clarence remarried, wedding Mary Duncan in Georgia. Prior, Clarence served in World War II from April 1942 and until November 1949, attaining the rank of Colonel. By 1981, he was living at 15541 East Colfax Avenue in Aurora, Colorado.

Clarence W. Clark died on August 19, 1981, at the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Colorado. He was buried in Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver. He was a member of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Yankee Division Veterans Association, the Mile High Chapter of the Retired Officers Association, and the Murphy Borelli Chapter of Disabled American Veterans. He was survived by his second wife and his four children from his first marriage.

Sources

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

Methuen, Boston directories, various years; Ancestry.com

Family Trees; Ancestry.com

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

Death Record for Mary L. (McKibbon) Clark, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. ew England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com

Service Record; The Adjutant General Office, Archives-Museum Branch, Concord, MA

“Says Duty at Border is Not a Bit Exciting,” Boston Post, 23 July 1916; Newspaperarchive.com

Lists of Outgoing Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, Record Group 92. The National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Ancestry.com

“Dorchester Boy to Be A Lieutenant,” Boston Post, 17 February 1918, 10; Newspaperarchive.com

Lists of Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, Record Group 92. The National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Ancestry.com

“Clarence W Clark Heads Worcester Dry Agents” Boston Globe, 6 April 1922, 11; Newspapers.com

“Dry Sleuths Make Worcester Cleanup” Boston Globe, 16 May 1922, 5; Newspapers.com

“Fletcher Serves Notice He’ll Seek Mayor’s Job” Boston Globe, 2 Sept 1925, 9; Newspapers.com

Deaths, Boston Globe, 19 May 1978, 45; Newspapers.com

Florida Department of Health. Florida Divorce Index, 1927-2001; Ancestry.com

Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Ancestry.com

National Cemetery Administration. Nationwide Gravesite Locator. U.S. Veterans’ Gravesites, ca.1775-2006; Ancestry.com

“Clarence W. Clark,” Denver Post, 26 August 1981, 35; provided by the Denver Obituary Project, The Denver Public Library

“Clarence W. Clark,” Rocky Mountain News, 25 August 1981, 110; provided by the Denver Obituary Project, The Denver Public Library

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Clarence William Clark, Dorchester, Mattapan, Uncategorized, World War 1, World War I, world war one | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2419 Charles Simon Bennett

Posted on August 25, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2419 Charles Simon Bennett

Our next biography features: Charles Simon Bennett

Written by Donna Albino

Charles Simon Bennett was born in Milton, Massachusetts, on November 13, 1894, to Simon Bennett and Harriet (“Hattie”) LeVangie Bennett, both immigrants from Nova Scotia. Simon’s surname had been Benoit before it was Anglicized to Bennett. Simon probably changed it when he came to the United States as a young adult and found work as a mill hand in a chocolate factory. By the time Charles was 5 years old, the family had moved from Milton to 1059 Washington Street in the Lower Mills area of Dorchester. The family had 10 children, but two had passed away by the time of their move. In the 1900 census, the eight children, aged 2 to 18, were living with their parents, and all but the 2-year-old were in school.

By 1910, Charles’s older brother Edward, aged 22, had moved out of the home, but the rest of the children were still living with their parents, in a new rental home a few doors away at 1062 Washington Street in Dorchester. Charles’s father Simon was still working as a laborer in a chocolate factory, and Charles was working as a grocery clerk. Several of Charles’s older sisters were working as dressmakers from home, one of his sisters was working as a waitress in a hotel, and his sister Agnes was a telegraph operator in a railroad office.

In May of 1917, Charles joined the war effort. His first assignment was with the 43rd Aero Squadron, which was a brand new training unit at Camp Kelly, Texas. They were assigned, but never quite got operational, as a pursuit squadron in France. In October of 1917, Charles was transferred to the 19th Aero Squadron, which had also organized at Camp Kelly in Texas. This unit was responsible for observing the French company Michelin’s air manufacture and assembly procedures, Charles traveled to Philadelphia to sail to France on the S. S. Northland in December of 1917. He served in France until the end of the war, and returned on the S. S. Arizonan in April of 1919 several days after his honorable discharge.

After the war, Charles returned to Dorchester and lived with his parents at 1062 Washington Street in Dorchester. In the 1920 census, only Charles and his 26-year-old sister Agnes were living with their parents. Simon was still working at the chocolate factory, and Agnes was still working as a telegraph operator. Charles was working as a dredger for a fish market, which may have involved catching clams and oysters for the market.

By 1925, Charles was living in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where he married Eva Gertrude Godkin. In the 1930 census, they were still living in a rented home in Holyoke, and Charles worked as a fish salesman. Their daughter, Barbara, was two years old. In the 1940 census, they owned the home they were renting in 1930, and they had two children, Barbara aged 12, and Charles aged 9. Charles still worked as a fish salesman. When Charles registered for the WWII draft around 1942, the family lived at a new address in Holyoke, and Charles’s employer was O’Hara Brothers, 22 Fish Pier, Boston. He may have received seafood shipments from Boston, and delivered them to Holyoke-area customers.

Charles kept connected to other military veterans throughout the rest of his life; he was a member of the American Legion Post 325 of Holyoke, and the Holyoke Knights of Columbus Council 90. His wife passed away in 1968, and he followed her a few years later on November 6, 1972, after a short illness. His children survived him, as well as his sister Agnes, who was still living in Dorchester at 7 Van Winkle Street, less than a mile from their childhood home on 1062 Washington Street.

Sources:

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Birth Records, 1840-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Marriage Index, 1901-1955 and 1966-1970 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Death Index, 1970-2003 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

Year: 1900; Census Place: Boston Ward 24, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Page: 22; Enumeration District: 1535; FHL microfilm: 1240688

Year: 1910; Census Place: Boston Ward 24, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T624_625; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 1632; FHL microfilm: 1374638

Year: 1920; Census Place: Boston Ward 21, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T625_739; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 524

Year: 1930; Census Place: Holyoke, Hampden, Massachusetts; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 0140; FHL microfilm: 2340641

Year: 1940; Census Place: Holyoke, Hampden, Massachusetts; Roll: m-t0627-01595; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 7-89

The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War II Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) for the State of Massachusetts; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System, 1926-1975; Record Group Number: 147; Series Number: M2090

US Army WWI Transportation Service, Passenger Lists; Lists of Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938; Lists of Outgoing Passengers, 1917-1938

The Holyoke Telegram-Telegraph (Holyoke, Massachusetts) * 7 Nov 1972, Tue

Burns family tree on Ancestry.com

The Aerodome Forum, WWI Aviation, Other WWI Aviation, 43rd Aero Squadron, AEF

military.wikia.org, information ab out the 19th Fighter Squadron

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Charles Simon Bennett, Dorchester, Lower Mills, Uncategorized, World War 1 | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2418 Ward Macondray King House

Posted on August 18, 2019 by earltaylor

Ward Macondray King House

Dorchester Illustration no. 2418 Ward, Macondary, King House

The Ward-Macondray-King House was a three-story Federal mansion, built on Adams Street about the year 1800, opposite Lonsdale and Mallet Streets.

Nothing seems to be known of Susan Ward, the first owner, other than that she died in 1835 about 63 years of age, and the executors of her estate conveyed it to Freerick Wailliam Macondray. The Clapp genealogy reports that Bela Clapp(1760-1812), a carpenter, constructed the house.

The next owner was Captain Frederick William Macondray, who was born in Raynham and lived from 1803-1862. While Frederick was still an infant, his father died, leaving two children to the mother’s care. She moved the family to Dorchester, but Frederick, who was asthmatic, had difficulty with his breathing. At a very early age he showed an interest in a sea-faring life, and before he was ten years old, in the year 1812, during the war, he went to sea in the care of Captain William Austin. After eight years of training Frederick, still under the command of Austin, set out on his longest journey, as Clerk and Fourth Officer on the sailing ship Panther on a two-year voyage to California to collect hides and tallow. Among his jobs was keeping a detailed log of the voyage. One year after the eventful trip on the Panther, the young Macondray was assigned the charge of his own vessel and received the title of Captain. Just after he had attained his majority, Captain Macondray was called to the command of a vessel sailing between South America and China.

At the age of 28, on September 22, 1831, he married Lavinia Capen Smith in Taunton, Massachusetts. Soon after their marriage, they set sail for China on the sailing vessel The Hamilton, and they lived in Macao for 8 years. Concerned for the health and education of his growing family Captain Macondray took his family back to Massachusetts on a journey that took more than two months.

The Captain purchased the home called “Rosemont” in Dorchester in 1842. The estate stretched from Adams Street to Neponset Avenue and from a line 15 to 20 rods south of the mansion to Mill Street (now Victory Road) on the north. He also owned 6 acres across Adams Street stretching toward Dorchester Avenue. The Chinese pagoda that he built on the crown of the hill in back of the house made a magnificent observatory.

Captain Macondray and his family lived in Rosemont for seven years. The estate was known for its beautiful gardens — Macondray was a practical horticulturist, and for years the exhibition of his fruit and flowers at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society were highly honored.

Although Macondray seems to have been already quite well off, after he heard the news of the gold excitement in 1848, he sold the house in Dorchester with its large estate in 1849 to Mr. Edward King of Boston for $26,000 and went to California. Within one month of his arrival, he established, with James Otis and Mr. Cary, the F.W. Macondray Co., which began as a commission house receiving the greater part of its merchandise from Boston. It became the largest commercial house in San Francisco, and in 1852, after its first shipment of tea, soon became the main importer of fine teas from China. In its infant stage, Macondray & Co. also functioned as one of the first banking facilities in San Francisco and served as agents of the North China Marine Insurance Co., and the Yang Tsze Marine Insurance Association, insuring hulls and cargo.

He became enormously rich. Among his other accomplishments Macondray is credited with bringing Zinfandel vines to California in the period 1852-1857.

Edward King, the next owner of the house, acquired a fortune in the paint and drug business and was retired when he bought the house in 1849. He was President and Director of the Dorchester & Milton Branch Railroad and President of the Mattapan Bank in the Harrison Square section of Dorchester. He was on the pulpit committee of the Third Unitarian Society at the corner of Neponset Avenue and Mill Street (now Victory Road).

The estate, which was conveyed to Charles Carruth in 1859 and back to Edward King in 1866, was then broken up and sold off in various parcels.

Painting from the Edward A. Huebener collection of brick from Dorchester buildings with the portrait of the building painted on the face of the brick.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Adams Street, architecture, Dorchester, Edward King, Federal period, Frederick Macondray, Susan Ward, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration of the Day 2417 Thomas L. Monahan

Posted on August 11, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2417 Thomas L. Monahan

Our next biography features: Thomas L. Monahan.

Thomas L. Monahan was born June 21, 1900, at 64 Walker Street in Charlestown. His parents, John W. and Elizabeth (Kyle) Monahan were Bostonians of Irish ancestry, married in 1883. John was a cigar maker. Thomas had a number of older siblings: Elizabeth born in 1884, Ellen in 1886, John in 1888, Joseph in 1889, Catherine in 1891, Mary in 1893, and Georgiana in 1895, his youngeroung brother Edward was born in 1902.

The family moved regularly. In 1902, they lived at 33 Cook Street in Charlestown; in 1904 they were a few doors down at number 29. By 1905, they lived in Dorchester, at 59 Armandine Street. They moved to 15 Hecla Street in 1908. By 1910, the family was living at 9 Leedsville Street. In 1916, they resided at 1845 Dorchester Avenue. By then, Thomas was employed as a clerk up the street at 1836 Dorchester Avenue.

Thomas enlisted before war was declared, joining the National Guard in Boston on March 20, 1917. He reported for duty on March 28, mustering as a Private on March 31. He served in D Company, 9th Massachusetts National Guard, which was later reclassified as the 101st Infantry, 26th Division aka “the Yankee Division.” D Company sailed for France on September 7, 1917, leaving from Hoboken, New Jersey, on the USS Tenadores. Thomas’s engagements were in the Defensive sectors Chemin-des-Dames and Toul-Boucq.

On March 27, 1918, he was slightly wounded and was hospitalized until July 2. He was then sent to B Company, 116 Train Headquarters and Military Police, 1st Depot Division, where he served until July 20, when he was transferred to the American Regulating Station APO 921. On December 15, he began serving with Port Commander, Coblenz, Germany, where he remained until July 4. He returned home with Brest Casual Company 2706, sailing on the USS Minnesota, and arriving in the United States on July 28, 1919. He was demobilized and discharged at Camp Lee, Virginia.

In 1920, Thomas lived with his parents at 1814 Dorchester Avenue, in the Ashmont neighborhood of Dorchester, and he worked as a grocery store clerk. Also living in the household were older siblings Joseph, an auto driver, and Mary, an accountant. In 1923, 1924, and 1925, the Boston directory lists Thomas as a student; the last two years he resided at 7 Ashmont Street.

By 1930, Thomas’ parents were deceased. On the 1930 census he appears in Lakewood, Ohio, living with his sister Georgiana’s family. Her husband, James Mullen, also a World War veteran, was a hosiery salesman. Thomas was in a similar line of work, selling lingerie. He worked as a salesman throughout the 1930s.

Thomas married Elizabeth Hunt, known as Rita, on January 5, 1932, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Elizabeth grew up in Boston, the daughter of a sign writer. She had been previously married and was divorced. Thomas and Elizabeth raised four children together: Janet, Nancy, Jane, and Thomas Junior. The family moved back to Thomas’s old Ashmont neighborhood as the Boston directory lists them living at 64 Florida Street in 1936. The next year they moved a block away to 22 Dawson Street, where Thomas lived for the rest of his life. According to the 1940 census, Rita’s siblings Leo, a special officer, and Catherine, a hospital clerk, were also part of the household.

Thomas’s occupation on the 1940 Census was “classified labor” for the Navy. He appeared in the Boston directory in the 1940s as a helper at the Navy Yard. By 1953, he was working as a bartender. In 1957, he appeared in the directory as an attendant nurse at the Long Island Hospital, a job he kept through 1960. The next year, the Boston directory lists him as a janitor at Old Harbor Village.

Thomas died on April 23, 1962. A Solemn High Mass of Requiem was held at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Dorchester. He was survived by his wife and children.

Sources

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

Family Tree, Ancestry.com

Boston Directories, various years; Ancestry.com and Archive.org

Census Records, Federal, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940; Ancestry.com

Service Record; The Adjutant General Office, Archives-Museum Branch, Concord, MA

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

“New Hampshire, Marriage and Divorce Records, 1659–1947.” New England Historical Genealogical Society, Citing New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire; Ancestry.com

“Deaths,” Boston Globe, 24 April 1962: 38; Newspapers.org

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Ashmont, Dorchester, Thomas L. Monhah, Thomas Monhan, Uncategorized, World War 1 | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2416 16 Howe Street redux

Posted on August 4, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2416 16 Howe Street redux

A few weeks ago we had a vintage photo of 16 Howe Street alongside a more recent one. More information has come to light about the history of the house and its owners. This post has been written by Marti Glynn.

The little house at 16 Howe Street, built in 1836 for Nahum and Hannah Bragg, has long been known in the neighborhood as the ‘original Howe family homestead’. True, of course – the house was occupied for over 100 years by Leonard Howe and his descendants, a family with a long and distinguished history in Massachusetts. What has been little known until now, however, is that it was the last occupant of the house that provides its greatest distinction and most lasting legacy. In 1948, Lowell Kingsley bought 16 Howe Street and with his wife, Charlotte, called it home for nearly 60 years.

Lowell Vincent Kingsley was born in 1918 in Illinois to Dr. Howard and Edith (Halliday) Kingsley, who had both recently graduated with degrees in education. Howard would go on to become a professor of Psychology at Boston University’s School of Education. In 1936, Edith Kingsley joined Boston University’s Educational Clinic, which focused on remedial reading, a field then in an embryonic stage. Two years later, with colleague Helen Loud, Edith Kingsley founded the Kingsley School in the Back Bay, believed to be the first school in the nation to provide intensive reading instruction to children of normal or higher intelligence who struggled to read. In 1948, Lowell Kingsley became the Director of the Kingsley School, a position he held for thirty-seven years.

Working in the early days of what is now called “special education,” the Kingsley School’s talented, innovative teaching team explored and often succeeded with experimental ways to teach young people who had not succeeded in traditional classrooms. The school’s approach was as unique as the institution itself. Mr. Kingsley believed children would try harder to learn if they weren’t designated as difficult and if their efforts weren’t measured solely by the traditional grading system within a standard school’s class structure. Rather than issue report cards, his school prepared written reports for parents that discussed their children’s accomplishments in detail.

“We had a lot of children in those days who were a disappointment to their parents and teachers,” he said in an interview for a history of the school. “But I always balked at the labels, and I knew that we had to take care of the emotional side of the child, too.”

An innovative figure in Boston’s education history during the 20th century, Mr. Kingsley led what is now the Kingsley Montessori School from 1948 to 1985.Enrollment began to dwindle after 1972, when the Legislature approved Chapter 766, which established the right of young people in the Commonwealth to have access to education programs best suited to their needs. As school districts began providing special education, demand dropped for what the Kingsley School offered.In 1991, when the Kingsley School had relocated to Fairfield Street, it merged with a Montessori school housed in the same building. Mr. Kingsley was relieved that the school he had led would continue, albeit in a new form.

Thirty-four years after the Kingsley School first identified the need and opened its doors to educate children with learning disabilities, the concept the school pioneered was codified in Massachusetts law and, through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, made available to children across America.

Bibliography

“More Help for Slower and Gifted Students” – Boston Globe, September 19, 1965
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2017/09/21/lowell-kingsley-former-longtime-headmaster-kingsley-school-dies/gTDd1rT8hfxEvrHfmVxpaK/story.html
https://www.mchoulfh.com/obituaries/Lowell-Kingsley/#!/Obituary

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 16 Howe Street, Dorchester, Edith Kingsley, Kingsley School, Lowell Kingsley, Uncategorized | Comments Off