He opened the first store in 1633 or 1634. It stood on Washington Street opposite the Old State House, on the northeast corner. Colonial records fail to state what class of goods our pioneer store-keeper dealt in, or how long he conducted his shop, or whether he made it a success, which I venture to predict, in view of his career, he did.
He proved himself a shrewd and energetic business man and became wealthy for the times in which he lived. He was the proprietor of a large amount of real estate, including two stores and half an acre of land, which is now covered by the store of Houghton & Dutton, and corn mills in Charlestown and Malden.
He was one of the builders of Long wharf, the oldest in Boston and the one with the most interesting history. He served as sergeant in that organization of, as somebody has facetiously dubbed them, “bottle-scared veterans,” the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.
Among his benefactions was a gift of 70 acres to Harvard College. I might state in passing that Cogan was one of the settlers of Dorchester, which colony was founded in the same year as was Boston, 1630, and lived there until his removal here in 1632.
Some few weeks ago the daily papers chronicled the death of the oldest alumnus of Harvard College and Boston’s oldest attorney. This was Charles A. Welch of Cohasset, Mass. Welch was the descendant of John Welch, who was recorded in Boston as a tax-payer as early as 1682, and who wedded Elizabeth White. The distinguished lawyer had as his great grandfather John Welch, who served as commander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, while the father of the lawyer was a noted wood carver and made the famous codfish which adorns the State House and also the great figure-head of Andrew Jackson which ornamented the bow of the American frigate Constitution.
Another descendant of this John Welch of colonial Boston, and brother of the lawyer, was Edward H. Welch, who had the happiness not only of returning to the church of his ancestors, but also of becoming a member of the Society of Jesus. The lawyer and priest numbered among their cousins the present Episcopalian Bishop of Fond du Lac, the Right Reverend Charles C. Grafton; and Mrs. Abbott, wife of the late Judge Abbott. In a word, John Welch of colonial Boston was the progenitor of a distinguished family.
How many of you could tell me who made the first piano-forte in America? And the first bass-viol? And the artificial leg with joints? And the first pack of playing cards? If you don’t know, it is not a matter of surprise, for those achievements are not chronicled in our histories.
Well, I’ll tell you. There lived in Dorchester or Milton between the years 1640 and 1650 a lad named Teague Crehore, who, it is said, had been stolen from his parents in Ireland.
One of his descendants was Benjamin Crehore, who was born in Milton. He was a remarkable genius. He it was who made the first piano-forte in America, manufactured the first bass-viols and invented the artificial leg with joints.
And it was Thomas Crehore, a nephew of Benjamin Crehore and the son of William Crehore, a chair maker, and of the fifth generation of Teague Crehore, who manufactured the first playing cards in America.