Dorchester Illustration 2621, Bunker Hill Day

Posted on June 18, 2023 by earltaylor

Bunker Hill Day

Dorchester Illustration 2621

Bunker Hill Day was yesterday. It marks the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major battle in the Revolutionary War, which took place on June 17, 1775, in Charlestown. The British won the battle.

Lemuel Clap served as a captain in the Revolutionary War, and during the siege of Boston and the Dorchester Heights campaign some of his men were stationed at his house. The house still stands on Boston Street.

Elizabeth (Clapp) Withington kept a diary and wrote on June 17, 1839, what her paternal grandmother, Rebecca (Dexter) Clap – Lemuel’s second wife whom he married in 1768 ­– had experienced.

The diary reads:

“Today commemorates the anniversary of the battle of Bunker hill, a day to ever be remembered by the children of the soldiers of the revolution. This morn at the breakfast table, the conversation was on the subject of this battle. My grandmother Clapp went out of doors & ascended a little hill not far from home to see the smoke of the burning of Charlestown & listened to the report of the cannon. What emotions filled her heart, her husband absent, the probability that they must abandon her home, making their Indian meal into bread, ready for their departure.

How little can we of the present day form any just conception of the labours & toils of our grandfather?  When my grandmother, deprived of sleep by the sickness of one of her children, in going from one room to the other, was obliged to step between the bodies of soldiers who lay in unconscious sleep on the floor, ready at a moment’s warning for the march.”

Although the Dorchester Historical Society’s Lemuel Clap House was altered in the early and mid-eighteenth century, it is still the same as it was during the revolution. It was moved to its present location on Boston Street in 1957.

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Dorchester Illustration 2620 Al Donahue

Posted on June 11, 2023 by earltaylor

Al Donahue

Dorchester Illustration 2620

Al Donahue was a violinist and a big band leader. Albert Francis Donahue was born on Huntoon Street in Dorchester in 1902. He graduated from Boston University Law School, but he was in such demand as a musician, he never took the bar examination. Donahue attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He got his start playing in Boston-area campus bands.

From the 1930s through the 1950s the Al Donahue Orchestra played at many famous venues across the country including the Rainbow Room of Rockefeller Center in New York City, the Palladium in Hollywood, the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, the Oriental Theater in Chicago, and locally at the Totem Pole in Newton. In 1932, Donahue’s orchestra had provided music aboard Furness Bermuda Line steamship, the Monarch of Bermuda. The orchestra was the featured attraction with regular engagements during 1936-38 at the Bermudiana Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Between 1935 and 1942, he recorded for Decca Records, Vocalion, and Okeh. His biggest hit was a rendition of “Jeepers Creepers,” which went to number one on the Billboard chart in 1938. He also recorded for University Recording Company. Vocalists including Paula Kelly, Dee Keating, Lynne Stevens, Phil Brito, and Snooky Lanson were guest singers with the band.

After World War II, the ensemble moved away from big band music toward light music, playing throughout the West Coast and appearing in films such as Sweet Genevieve. Later, Donahue would return to cruise ships once more, as music director contracting bands for the Furness Bermuda Line. His band played on the Queen of Bermuda and the Ocean Monarch from 1950 to 1963.

In 1933 he married New York heiress Frederica Gallatin. They had three children, two sons and a daughter. He settled in Oceanside, California, where he ran a store called Ponzi’s House of Music, which closed in the 1970s.

Donahue died in 1983.

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Dorchester Illustration 2619, Humphrey Atherton’s Tomb

Posted on June 4, 2023 by earltaylor

Humphrey Atherton’s Tomb

Dorchester Illustration 2619

Humphrey Atherton was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and he organized the first militia in Dorchester. As Major-General in the Suffolk Regiment, he was the senior military officer in New England, which included the responsibilities of subduing and controlling Native Americansand apprehending criminals, such as those accused of heresy.Atherton was also known for his harsh treatment of Native Americans and his opposition to Quakers.

Atherton died after he fell off his horse which stumbled over a cow. His Quaker critics believed his horrible death to be God’s visitation of wrath. A century later a Quaker imaginatively described Atherton’s death:

“Humfray Adderton … having been, on a certain day, exercising his men with much pomp and ostentation, he was returning home in the evening, near the place where they usually loosed the Quakers from the cart, after they had whipped them, his horse, suddenly affrighted, threw him with such violence, that he instantly died; his eyes being dashed out of his head, and his brains coming out of his nose, his tongue hanging out at his mouth, and the blood running out at his ears: Being taken up and brought into the Courthouse, the place where he had been active in sentencing the innocent to death, his blood ran through the floor, exhibiting to the spectators a shocking instance of the Divine vengeance against a daring and hardened persecutor; that made a fearful example of that divine judgment, which, when forewarned of, he had openly despised, and treated with disdain.”

The following inscription can be found on Atherton’s tomb in Dorchester Old North Burying Ground:

Hear lyes our Captaine, & MAJOR of Suffolk was withall,

A godley Magistrate was he, and MAJOR GENERALL

Two Troops of Hors with him here Came, Such worth his love did Crave;

Ten Companyes of Foot also Mourning Marcht to his grave.

Let all that read be sure to keep the faith as he has don,

With Christ he lives now crownd, His name was HUMPHREY ATHERTON

He dyed the 16 of September 1661.

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Edward Everett School on Sumner Street

Posted on May 28, 2023 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2618

Today’s illustration comes from The Dorchester Beacon, Feb. 17, 1894. The artist would have been standing at the corner of Willis and Stoughton Street.

The illustration was on the front page of the newspaper with a story about the Everett School Association’s reunion at the Old Dorchester Clubhouse on Feb. 6, 1894, a few blocks away from the school. The story said the school “is commodious and attractive, but its generous arms cannot hold all who throng to them. Primary schoolhouses are utilized on both Dorchester and Savin Hill avenues, and yet, so eager is the desire to get an education, that every square foot of room is growing more precious.”

The original Everett School building on Sumner Street was made out of wood and opened on Feb. 25, 1856. The City of Boston replaced the building in 1876 with a larger structure built of brick.

The school was named for Edward Everett, a Dorchester native. Everett was a congressman, governor of Massachusetts, president of Harvard University and served as U.S. Secretary of State in President Millard Fillmore’s administration. Everett gave a two hour speech prior to President Lincoln’s two minute Gettysburg Address.

Building schools was an ongoing endeavor in the second half of the 19th century. Some of the more notable school buildings include: William Stoughton School (1855) on River Street; Christopher Gibson School (1857) on School Street; Thaddeus Mason Harris School (1861) on Adams Street; the Edmund P. Tileston School (1868) on Norfolk Street; and the Minot School (1886) on Neponset Avenue.

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Donna Summer, Dorchester Illustration 2617

Posted on May 21, 2023 by earltaylor

Donna Summer, who was born as LaDonna Adrian Gaines to Andrew and Mary Gaines on Dec. 31, 1948, in Boston. As a young girl, she sang gospel music at the Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston.

Summer attended Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester, but she dropped out a few months before she graduated. In 1983, she returned to the school where she was awarded her high school diploma. School officials credited her life experience and coursework in drama and voice toward her unfulfilled graduation requirements.

Summer’s career took off in the mid 1970s when she became known as the Queen of Disco. She won five Grammys and sold more than 130 million records worldwide. She went on to record  four number one singles, fourteen top ten hits, three platinum albums and twelve other Grammy nominations. Summer had 32 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1975, Summer recorded “Love To Love You Baby,” which made her an international star.

Summer won Best R&B Vocal Performance Female for Last Dance in 1978, Best Rock Vocal Performance Female for “Hot Stuff ” in 1979, Best Inspirational Performance for  “He’s A Rebel” in 1983, Best Inspirational Performance for “Forgive Me” in 1984 and Best Dance Recording for “Carry On” in 1997. She also picked up three American Music Awards in 1979, the NAACP Image Award in 1980, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992.

Her last studio album, “Crayons” in 2008, produced three dance club hits with “I’m a Fire,” “Stamp Your Feet” and “Fame.”  In 2009, Summer sang at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Norway in honor of Nobel laureate U.S. President Barack Obama. Her last hit was the 2010 single “To Paris With Love.”

She appeared in eight movies, was the first female artist to have three number one solo singles in one year, the first female artist to use synthesizers, and the first artist to create an extended play song (“Love To Love You Baby,”) for use in dance clubs.

Donna Summer died from lung cancer in 2012, she was 63.

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Frank P. Sheehan, Dorchester Illustration 2616

Posted on May 14, 2023 by earltaylor

Frank P. Sheehan

Dorchester Illustration 2616

Francis Patrick Sheehan (1884 -1953) was a middle distance runner. He was a

member of the St. Alphonsus Athletic Club, South Boston Athletic Club, Boston

Athletic Association and the Boston Irish-American Athletic Club.

In 1907, Sheehan broke the 880-yard record at the Amateur Athletic Union junior

championship games at the Jamestown Exposition in Norfolk, Virginia. He was a

member of the 1908 US Olympic Team, competing in London, England, but

without a sponsor, he had to pay his own way. He made it to the semi-finals.

Sheehan became deputy superintendent of the Department of School Buildings in

Boston. He lived on Savin Hill Avenue and later moved to Tuttle Street. He had a

long affiliation with the Boston Athletic Association, working as a track official.

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Dorchester Illustration 2615 Railroad Bridge

Posted on May 7, 2023 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2615 Railroad Bridge

Today’s illustration appeared in Ballou’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, a 19th-century illustrated magazine published in Boston, in 1855.

The subject of the engraving is the Old Colony Railroad bridge between Savin Hill and Commercial Point. The artist was probably standing on the hill behind the First Parish Church, overlooking Dorchester Bay.

On March 16, 1844 the Old Colony Railroad Corporation was formed to provide a rail connection between Boston and Plymouth. Construction of the line began in South Boston in June 1844 and the 36.8 mile line opened to Plymouth on Nov. 10, 1845. The extension from South Boston to the newly-completed Kneeland Street Station in Boston opened on June 19, 1847.

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Dorchester Illustration 2614 Richard Scarry

Posted on April 30, 2023 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2614 Richard Scarry

Richard Scarry (1919-1994), children’s author and illustrator, grew up in Dorchester. 

His parents, John and Mary, bought a house at 32 Melville Ave. in 1917. John Scarry operated Scarry’s department store in Brookline Village for 45 years and a men’s store in Fields Corner. He was president of the Massachusetts Cooperative Bank and of the Dorchester Board of Trade.

After high school, Richard Scarry enrolled in a business college but dropped out to become a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was living at home and a student there when he was drafted in 1943. His draft registration card described him as 6 feet tall, 150 pounds with a light complexion, brown hair and brown eyes. The Boston Residents Lists note that he lived at 32 Melville Ave. until 1946.

Scarry is best known for his Best Ever book series that take place primarily in the fictional town of Busytown, which was populated by friendly and helpful animals, including Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Mr. Frumble, police Sergeant Murphy, Mr. Fixit, Bananas Gorilla and Hilda Hippo. The Busytown books were also adapted into an animated series for television, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, which can be viewed on YouTube. The books and animated series were produced for a preschool-age audience and espouse themes such as teamwork, friendship, courage, and responsibility.

Scarry illustrated more than 150 books many are still in print. His books have sold over 100 million copies worldwide and are published in 20 languages.

Scarry died 1994. The Society of Illustrators posthumously awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

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Dorchester Illustration 2613 Henry Martyn Tremlett, Civil War

Posted on April 27, 2023 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2613 Henry Martyn Tremlett, Civil War

Henry Martyn Tremlett was a Boston merchant. Tremlett was born July 15, 1833 in Dorchester, the son of Thomas and Cordelia Tremlett. Tremlett began as a captain in the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment from 1861 to 1862, then as a major in 1862, and eventually a lieutenant colonel in 1864 commanding the 39th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

He lived in Dorchester until the early 1850s, when his family moved to Boston. His father was a successful shipping merchant as a partner in the company Deblois & Tremlett with premises at 28 Foster’s Wharf in Boston. In 1855, he entered into business in Boston with his older brother Frank (Francis E.) as Tremlett Bros. & Company.

Following the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Tremlett joined the 4th Battalion of the Massachusetts Militia on April 25. In a short time, he rose to the rank of sergeant. On July 10, 1861, he enlisted in the 20th Massachusetts Regiment that was forming in Readville. Tremlett was commissioned to the rank of captain and assigned to command Company A. The regiment was initially part of Lander’s Brigade, Second Division, Second Corps.

On Sept. 4, 1861, two months after the First Manassas (the first major battle of the Civil War), the 20th Massachusetts received orders to leave for the front. Tremlett served through many battles throughout his three year enlistment. He also served in Boston as a recruiting officer. On July 10, 1864, he reenlisted. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and assigned as the new commanding officer of the 39th Regiment, Fifth Corps, which was camped in the center of the Union line outside Petersburg, Virginia.

At the end of March 1865, the 39th was in the Battle of Gravelly Run also known as the Battle of White Oak Road, in Virginia. Where they encountered strong Confederate opposition. During the battle, Tremlett was wounded in the leg. As Adjutant General Schouler noted in his annual report, “Lieutenant-Colonel Tremlett was wounded soon after the engagement began, and was with much difficulty conveyed to the rear. It was found necessary at the hospital to amputate his leg at once.” 

Back in Boston, Tremlett was hospitalized and received treatment over the course of several weeks before being discharged. Not long after, he developed complications from his wound and died about a month after the armistice, on June 6, 1865. Tremlett is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain.

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Dorchester Illustration 2612 Charles H. Haines, Jr., World War I

Posted on April 16, 2023 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2612 Charles H. Haines, Jr., World War I

Today’s illustration is from the Aug. 3, 1918, edition of The Dorchester Beacon newspaper.

Charles H. Haines, Jr., was born in Dorchester on Feb. 14, 1888, to Charles H. Haines and his wife, Florence, who were married the year before. Charles, Sr., had moved to the newly-built house at 16 Warner St. in 1886.

Charles, Jr., attended the Oliver Wendell Holmes School and Dorchester High School. His entry in the 1910 U.S. Census says that he was working as a salesman in a lace store. In 1917, he was living at 16 Warner St. and working as a traveling salesman for Shoninger Bros., New York, NY.

When he registered for the draft for World War I on June 5, 1917, he was described as slender, 5 feet 9 inches tall, with black hair and hazel eyes. Charles, Jr., enlisted in the aviation section of the Signal Corps at the outbreak of the war and got his general training at Princeton University. Then he went to Texas, where he received his commission. He was a member of the 1st Provisional Wing of the Army Aero Corps. Charles died in Hempstead, NY, in July 1918, when he was piloting a “giant Haviland battle plane,” which fell to the ground.

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