Document · book

Souvenir of the 50th anniversary of the dedication of Bunker Hill Monument, 1843-1893

, 1893. A public-domain text about Boston, accessioned whole so the archive can quote it.

Document

Type

book

Publisher

Charlestown, Mass., The Bunker Hill times

Published, as stated

1893

Language

en

Media type

text/plain; charset=utf-8

Size

755265 bytes

Preservation

preserved

Digest (SHA-256)

43e912f0e5d1cfc2907ae913dc3caea093770637a50832a7d3a2eb4412b52587

Text

Extracted text, as held. Quoted without alteration.

Tf^ ^^V'^^w^,^^l^^^^■ ((ttyx«((«'.i^««((waM«(«(((c<jjHH(uiij«K«(«iwajimw^^ .t OF THE jo^Anniversary OF THE DEDICATION OP DUNhEKtIlLi: 7\ONLinENT ■s I s ^^-1^ 'PUBLISHED -^X The Bunpvek Hill Times ! y/y/y/pyyjjj/.jjA nwrnm^mw^mtm 11.:^'^%. ■^ / <<t.==^ Press of Tafft-Gardner-Shepard Co., Boston. HISTORY OP^ THE TOWN. RI' llAKh I l<( 'I him. HAM. |K., Ill llu' hisl nmuljci ot his " I lisluiy ol Charlcstown," published in lS45,s;ii<i. " It is not Inn much to say that, at the piL-SLiit day, Charlcstown is doiiit; faithfully its )iarl in maintaining Kepul)hcan institutions. !ts ap- pearance indicates a prosperous connnunity. It has handsome streets and creditable pulilic buildings. Its religious institutions and com- mon schools are liberally sup]toited. Numer- ous benevolent associaticuis are constantly dis- tributing their charities. It lias a thoroughly furnished and efhcient fire department, and makes ample provision for its poor. Its police are vigilant. Its military corps patriotic. It bears the impress of the commercinl enterprise of the day, and is rapidly increasing in jiopula- tion, wealth and consecpience. Nor have it.-, inhabitants lost that public spirit that is so con- spicuous in the early history of the town." Ihis was true of Charlestown fifty years ago. It is true of Charlestown to-day, although it has ceased to be a separate municipality, and has become, as Hunnewell says, "that American rarity, a completed municipality." Charlestown to-day is a small territtuy but in 1S29 when Ralph Sprague and hi^ com- panions settled here it included Maiden, Ever- ett, Woburn, Stoneham, Burlington and Somer- ville, a large part of Medford and a small part of Cambridge, Reading and Wakefield. The first Englishman who is know-n to have visited Charlestown was the great navigator, John Smith, who in 1614 sailed from England and spent three months explornig the coast of Massachusetts. lie entered the Chnrles River and named it. The exact date of the founding of the town is a mailer of dispute, but the best authorities agree that the settlement was made during the last week of June, or the first week of July, 1629, when Mr. Graves, Rev. Francis Bright, the Spragues and about one hundred compan- ions came from Salem and jntched their tents near the Town Hill. Mr. (iraves was an en- gineer and afterwards laid out the town. But when this i>arty arrived they found Thcmias Walford, a smith, already occupying a house on the slope of Breed's Hill. He was the first Englishman to settle in Charlestown but the date of his coming is not certain. It is prob- able that he was the agent of John ( lorges whose brother Robert, obtained a grant of ter- ritory, which includeil Charlestown, froni the Plymouth Council December 30, 1622. Rob- ert Cforges died and his grant descended to his brother John who leased a part of the territory to John OhUiam and John Dorrill. The pat- ent of Rol)ert (iorges was loosely drawn and the Blymouth Council on Marcli 19, 1628, sold the territory over again to the Massachu- setts Company. Because of the dis]nile con- cerning the title, the latter Company made every effort to occupy the territory and sent over a colonizing party under the leadership <)f John Endicott who landed at Salem, Septem- l)er 6, 1628, settling there and founding a town. The following year Charlestown was settled and the Great lUnise built for the occupnncy of Governor

Questions this record answers

Each answer is composed only from fields this record carries, and names the attestation for what it says. A question the record cannot answer from its own attested content is not asked here. Where a boundary is described as official it was promulgated by an authority with the power to draw it and is not amended by anything on the vernacular layer; where it is described as vernacular it is held by attestation alone and amends no official boundary.

Identity

Identifier

urn:lemay:boston:document:souvenir-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-dedication-of-bunker-hill-monument-1843-1893

Canonical URL

https://boston.fyi/document/souvenir-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-dedication-of-bunker-hill-monument-1843-1893

As JSON

https://boston.fyi/document/souvenir-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-dedication-of-bunker-hill-monument-1843-1893.json

Version

1 · last changed 5 September 2026