CHAPTER XVI.
On the opposite side of Spring Hill there was until 1890 a building with a front on Summer street, but there was a tenement on its easterly end which must be considered in connection with Market street. This tenement in my youth was occupied by Clement Bates, a native of Hanover, who came to Plymouth and married Irene Sanger, daughter of Thomas Burgess, the keeper of the Plymouth lighthouse, who, because he always wore a red thrum cap, was called Red Cap Burgess. He married in 1824 Betsey Burgess, a sister of his first wife. He was a caulker, and graver by trade, and in 1831 was chosen sexton by the town, whose duty it was to conduct funerals, take care of the town house, and ring the town bell at such hours, morning, noon and night, as were specified by the town. After his relinquishment of the management of funerals, which had been taken up by private undertakers, he told me that he had buried thirty-two hundred and fifty persons. He performed the other duties of his office until his death, July 13, 1885. It is an interesting fact that after so long a period of business dealings with the material bodies of the dead he became a confirmed believer in the doctrines of Spiritualism.
In my early youth a wooden building standing on the north corner of Market and Summer streets, was occupied as a store by Bridgham Russell, until he was appointed postmaster in 1832. Mr. Russell was the son of Jonathan and Rebecca (Turner) Russell of Barnstable, and was born in 1793. He married in 1822 Betsey, daughter of Jeremiah Farris of Barnstable, and died March 29, 1840. He was the second Captain of the Standish Guards, succeeding Captain Coomer Weston. The store which Mr. Russell had occupied, was taken down in 1832, and replaced by the present brick building, which was occupied by Alexander G. Nye, and for many years by Samuel and Thomas Branch Sherman. Samuel Sherman was Town Treasurer from 1835 to 1856, serving one year after I entered, for the first time, the office of selectman, and died October 20, 1857.
The next building was occupied as long ago as I can remember by Osmore Jenkins, who kept a jeweller’s store as early as 1830, and after leaving Plymouth became distinguished in his profession. He was born in Mt. Vernon, N. H., September 4, 1815, and died in Melrose, Mass., December 19, 1904. Mr. Jenkins was succeeded by Wm. Morey, who occupied the store many years in making and selling boots and shoes. In those days, especially in winter, it was the universal custom to wear boots, the common close legged boots, in contra distinction to the top boots worn with small clothes. In 1831, when I was nine years old, Mr. Morey made my first pair, and if school hours had not interfered I think I should have watched every stitch and peg in their construction. These boots, now little worn, were first introduced into the peninsular army by the Duke of Wellington, and are to this day in England called Wellingtons. Why Congress boots, which have largely taken their place, should be so called, is somewhat strange, as similar laced boots have been for many generations worn in Ireland under the name of high-lows and brogans.
Wm. Morey had seven sons, William, born in 1813, John Edwards, 1815, Thos., 1817, Cornelius, 1820, Charles, 1825, Edwin, 1827, and Henry, 1833. Of these Edwin lives in Boston, a successful and well known merchant; Thomas was in 1899 the head of a thriving printing house in Greenfield, and of John Edwards I know nothing, while William, Charles and Henry have been dead some years, and Cornelius died in infancy.
The building extending from the Morey building to High street, was in my youth divided into two tenements. The southerly part was owned and occupied by Samuel Talbot, who bought it in 1826. Mr. Talbot, son of George Talbot of Milton, was born in that town in 1791, and came to Plymouth about 1820. In 1825 he formed a partnership with John Calderwood Holmes in the bakery business in the building in Summer street now occupied by the Misses Rich. Mr. Holmes died May 17, 1826, and Mr. Talbot became associated with George Churchill in the business. I have often seen the room, now a parlor, full of sea biscuit, waiting to be packed in casks and placed on board the whalemen. I remember, too, the two wheeled green baker’s cart with America Rogers driving, and the round, warm biscuit which he left at our house nearly every morning, the size and color of which varied with the price and quality of flour. Mr. Churchill was a man of humor, and in speaking one day of the readiness of Plymouth people to catch at new ideas he said, “Yes, Plymouth people will swallow anything. I know that by experience, for I have stuffed them with poor bread a good many years.” Nevertheless, those warm biscuits were good, but America Rogers’ buns and election cakes were better. Mr. Talbot died September 28, 1883. The northerly part of the building was owned and occupied in my boyhood by John Kempton, a caulker and graver by trade, as a dwelling house and store.
The building on the northerly corner of High street, recently owned by Chas. T. Holmes, was in 1832 the property and home of Samuel Robbins, and later of his son-in-law Robert Cowen. Until June 25, 1870, its southerly end extended about eight feet south of the general line of High street, but on that date the projection was taken by the town and the street line straightened. This projection was occupied in 1831, and later by Albert Leach as a shoemaker’s shop, and still later by Eleazer H. Barnes as a candy shop. Outside of the northerly end of the building, was a covered stairway and passage leading to a store in the rear of the main building in which Mr. Robbins kept a store until his death, which occurred July 27, 1838, at the age of eighty-six. It must have been about 1830 that he dislocated his thigh. At that time the means of reducing dislocations were crude, and I remember hearing in the street the terrible groans of the old gentleman while under the hands of the Boston surgeon, who had been sent for to manage the case.
The next building, which belongs to the estate of the late Charles T. Holmes, was occupied as long ago as I can remember on the front by Wm. Brown for the post office on the street floor, while he held the office of postmaster from 1822 to 1832, after which it was occupied by Edward Hathaway for a harness store, and finally by Amasa and Charles T. Holmes. The cellar under the post office was occupied at various times by Henry Flanders, who died May 8, 1835, and later, by James Barnes and others as an oyster shop. In 1829 H. H. Rolfe taught a private school in the room over the post office, and in 1832, Cephas Geovani Thompson, a portrait painter, and native of Middleboro, occupied for a time the same room where he painted portraits of Rev. Dr. Kendall, Capt. Nathaniel Russell and my mother. His son of the same name, was a highly esteemed portrait painter in Boston many years. The Old Colony Hall, a part of the estate in the rear of the main building, was through my youth occupied for various purposes. The Universalist Society after its formation, held services there from 1822 to 1826, when their church was built on Carver street. In 1833 Hiram Fuller taught a private school in the Hall, and many times in my boyhood I attended lectures and exhibitions there, among which were those of Harrington, the ventriloquist. At a later period the hall and the upper part of the main building were occupied by Stephen P. and Joseph P. Brown for a furniture shop and show room. William Brown, above mentioned, died May 9, 1845.
In speaking of Main street in an early chapter I referred to the physical changes which it had undergone within my memory. I propose now to say something about the occupants of its houses. As far back as I can remember the building on the corner of Main and Leyden streets contained a store in the lower story on Main street, a large room or hall on the corner over the store, and a tenement with an entrance on Leyden street. The store was occupied as early as 1825 as a hardware store by James and Ephraim Spooner, who dissolved partnership in 1832, Ephraim continuing in the business. In 1839 John Washburn and William Rider Drew were established in the store in the same business. In 1846 Messrs. Washburn and Drew separated, the former taking a store on the west side of the street, and the latter establishing himself as has been stated in the building on Leyden street, which had been occupied by Steward and Alderman, and Alderman and Gooding. The store after Washburn & Drew left it was divided into two and the corner one was occupied at various times by Benjamin Swift in the watch and clock business, and Edward W. Atwood. The other was occupied by Edward Hathaway and Edward Bartlett, Reuben Peterson and Rich and Weston’s express. At a later time both stores were occupied by Weston’s express succeeded by their present occupant, the New York and Boston Despatch Express.
It is worthy of notice as showing one of the steps in the progress of the temperance movement that the Plymouth Temperance Society in 1825 placed in the hands of Ephraim Spooner a quantity of intoxicating liquors to be by him given without charge to persons presenting the written prescription of a physician. Mr. Spooner was appointed postmaster in 1840, and again in 1842, after an interval of one year, during which Joseph Lucas held the office. He died April 10, 1887.
The large room over the store was occupied as a school room in 1831 and 1832 by George Partridge Bradford, who taught a mixed school of boys and girls, of whom I was one, and by Wm. Whiting, also, as a school room in 1833. It was later used by private teachers, and often as political campaign headquarters. The tenement was in those days occupied by Oliver Wood, the father of the late Oliver T. and Isaac L. Wood.
Mr. Bradford was the son of Gamaliel Bradford of Boston, and graduated at Harvard in 1825. He prepared for the ministry, but never sought a settlement, devoting himself to the profession of a teacher. Concord was frequently his home, and he possessed that mental temperament which made him a congenial companion of Emerson and Alcott. He died in Cambridge in 1890 at the age of 80.
Mr. Whiting graduated at Harvard in 1833, and while preparing himself for the bar taught a school in Plymouth, and, like the teachers who had preceded him, George Washington Hosmer, William Parsons Lunt, William H. Lord, Isaac N. Stoddard, Nathaniel Bradstreet, Benjamin Shurtleff, Horace H. Rolfe and Josiah Moore, married a Plymouth wife. Charles Field another teacher, died while his marriage engagement to a Plymouth lady was pending. Mr. Whiting married Lydia Cushing, daughter of Thomas Russell, and became a distinguished leader at the Boston bar. Miss Rose S. Whiting of Plymouth is his daughter. During the Civil war he was for a time the solicitor of the War Department, and published a very able paper on “War Powers under the Constitution,” which was taken as a guide in many doubtful questions arising during the war. He died at his home in Roxbury, June 29, 1873.
The next one story building was occupied as far back as my memory goes by Thomas May as a shoe store. He occupied it until 1845, when Henry Howard Robbins took the store and occupied it as a hat store, and was succeeded by Harrison Finney, who occupied it many years for the sale of shoe kit and findings, until his death, July 27, 1878. Mr. Robbins died December 19, 1872.
The next store now occupied by Benjamin L. Bramhall, was before 1830 occupied by Ezra Collier, who kept a bookstore and circulating library. In 1829 he formed a partnership with William Sampson Bartlett, under the firm name of Collier and Bartlett, which was dissolved the next year. Mr. Collier came to Plymouth about 1820, and married in 1823 Mary, daughter of Thomas and Mehitable (Shaw) Atwood, and I think removed from town after the dissolution of his partnership.
Mr. Bartlett continued the business in the same store until 1840, when he moved into the store built by him now occupied by Finney’s pharmacy in the building owned by Dr. Benjamin Hubbard. Anthony Morse succeeded Mr. Bartlett, and occupied it for a grocery store. It was later occupied by Benjamin Bramhall for a short time, and by William L. Battles for a year, when it was again occupied by Mr. Bramhall, who was succeeded by his son, Benjamin L., its present occupant. Benjamin Bramhall died August 15, 1882.
The next store was occupied by Thomas and George Adams as a hat store from 1828 until the dissolution of their partnership in 1830. Thomas Adams continued the business until 1832, when he gave up business, and not long after was employed as a salesman in the hat store of Rhodes on the corner of Washington and Court streets in Boston. He was a son of Thomas and Mercy (Savery) Adams, and married Eunice H. Bugbee of Pomfret, Vermont. He was not open to the charge of promoting race suicide as the following record of his children shows, to wit: Mary E., born in 1832; Thomas H., 1834; Frederick E. and Frank W., twins, 1836; Luther B. and Ellen, twins, 1837; Miranda B., 1839; Harriet E., 1841; James O. and another twin, 1841; David B., 1845; Walter S. and another twin, 1848, Adelaide V., 1849.
George Adams, brother of Thomas, removed to Boston, and became the well known and successful founder of the Boston directory. He returned to Plymouth in 1846, and occupied the old store. He married in 1829 Hannah Sturtevant, daughter of Ephraim Harlow, and had George W., 1830, who married Mary Holland of Boston; Hannah, 1832, who married Dr. Edward A. Spooner of Philadelphia; Sarah S., 1840, and Theodore Parker, 1845, who married Ellen B., daughter of Joseph Cushman. He died October 4, 1865, at the age of fifty-eight.
In 1835 Henry Howard Robbins moved his hatter’s business to this store, and it was later occupied by John Perkins & Reuben Peterson, hatters, Weston & Atwood, clothiers, and Wm. F. Peterson and others.
My first recollection of the Old Colony Memorial was when it was located in one or both rooms over the two stores just mentioned. James Thurber was then the publisher, and Benjamin Drew was one of the type setters. The paper was ready for the press by seven o’clock every Friday evening, and T remember well how much I enjoyed as a boy the permission to go to the office after supper and help fold the papers. The machine used in printing was the old Washington hand press which, tended by two men, could print one side at the rate of two or three hundred in an hour. Today a Hoe press is furnished with a roll of paper more than four miles long, and will print fifteen thousand complete newspapers in an hour.
The next store was in 1834, occupied by James G. Gleason as a barber’s shop, to which was attached a small room for the sale of soda and ice cream. Up to 1828 the barber shop of Jonathan Tufts, which stood on Church street, where the office of Jason W. Mixter, now stands, was the gathering place where the gossips of the town exchanged their news of the latest scandal. His shop had been for many years the place of deposit for curiosities which shipmasters collected in various parts of the world. Both the gossip and the curiosities were inherited by the Gleason shop, and finally descended to the shop of Isaac B. Rich and John T. Hall, Mr. Gleason’s successors.
Sometimes practical jokes were played in the shop more entertaining to the lookers on than to the victims. One of the habitues was William Bradford, a manufacturer of cotton bats, a man of humor, always ready to play a part in any prank. One day while Mr. Bradford was in the shop, Mr. Gleason went out on an errand and a countryman came in to be shaved. Bradford with a wink at the crowd said, “All right sir, your turn next, sit right down.” He gave the man a bountiful lather, and pulling off the towel said to him, “This is all we do in this department, you will have to go into the next shop to get your shave. When you go in don’t mind the old fellow in the front room, for he is a queer chap, a little off in his head, but go right through into the back room where they do the shaving.” Daniel Gale, the tailor, occupied the next shop, using the front room for cutting out work, and the back room for the sewing women. Mr. Gale was astonished, and so were the women, but when the angry countryman returned, Bradford had left, and Gleason had to bear the brunt of his mischief. Mr. Hall occupied the store until he purchased the Dr. Warren house on the west side of Main street, which he occupied until his death, September 21, 1885. Among those who have since occupied the store were, Mrs. Mary F. Campbell and Frederick L. Holmes.