Norfolk County, Massachusetts - Chapter 23: The Town of Milton, 1918

Chapter 23: The Town of Milton

Milton, the sixth town to be incorporated within the present limits of Norfolk County, is situated northeast of the center of the county and extends northward to the Suffolk County line. It is bounded on the north by the City of Boston; on the east by Quincy ; on the south and southwest by Randolph and Canton ; and on the west by the Town of Hyde Park, which is now within the Boston city limits.

Topography

Of all the towns of Norfolk County, Milton is preeminently the "town of hills." The Blue Hill range, composed of the highest elevations in Eastern Massachusetts, passes through the town. Except small patches, interspersed here and there among the hills, there is practically no level land. The soil of these small level tracts is a deep, heavy loam, quite fertile and productive. The Blue Hill Reservation, comprising the principal elevations of the Blue Hill range, has been set apart by the state as a tract for the recreation and edification of the people, and is under the control of the Metropolitan Park Commission.

The Neponset is the principal watercourse connected with the drainage system of the town. Its largest tributary in Milton is the Pine Tree Brook, which has its source in a pond fed by several small streams in the western part of the town. Its general course is easterly until it empties into the Neponset, not far from the Central Avenue bridge. Balster's and Cook's brooks flow into the Pine Tree Brook.

Unquaty or Gulliver's Brook rises near the Milton Cemetery and flows eastwardly to the harbor. It derives its name from Anthony Gulliver, who was born in England in 1619 and died in Milton in 1706. It is said that Dean Swift got the suggestion of his "Gulliver's Travels" from a member of this family. Jonathan Gulliver, a son of Anthony, was a member of the Massachusetts General Court in 1727.

Blue Hill River, a branch of the Monatiquot, a small, crooked stream, forms the boundary line between Milton and Randolph. On some maps this river is called the Monatiquot. It receives the waters of Silver Brook, which rises on the east side of the Great Blue Hill and flows in a southerly direction, draining Houghton's Pond in the course of its meanderings.

White Occupation

In 1630 Gov. John Winthrop arrived in the Massachusetts Bay colony with the charter. During the next three years there was a heavy emigration from England to the New World. In 1633 the name of Israel Stoughton first appears in the Dorchester records as a grantee of lands lying within the present Town of Milton. For his residence tract he selected 101 acres on the south side of the Neponset River, described as the "Indian Fields." His tract included nearly the whole of Milton Hill, extending along the river from the lower falls to the bend where Briggs' shipyard was afterward located. In 1656 this land was sold by the heirs of Israel Stoughton to John Gill.

Associated with Mr. Stoughton (doubtless stockholders of the company before leaving England) were John Glover and William Hutchinson. Mr. Glover selected a tract of 180 acres directly south of Milton Hill, bordered on the northwest by the brook. His land was occupied by his agent or tenant, Nicholas Wood, until it was sold by the Glover heirs in 1654 to Robert Vose.

Mr. Hutchinson laid out a large tract, which included a portion of Milton, though the greater part of it was in Braintree. In 1656 his son, Capt. Edward Flutchinson, sold the land to Anthony Gulliver, Henry Crane and Stephen Kingsley.

In 1636 the Town of Dorchester obtained a grant of land which embraced nearly the entire present Town of Milton. At that time it was customary, in occupying a new territory, to obtain a release of the Indian title. Accordingly, on October 8, 1636, Chief Kitchamakin of the Massachusett Indians, a brother of Chickatabot, granted and sold to Richard Collicott of Dorchester, "all that tract beyond the Mill within ye bounds of Dorchester for them and their heirs for ever - only reserving for my own use and for my men forty acres where I like best & in case I & they leave it the same alsoe to belong untoe Dorchester, giving some consideration for the paines Bestowed upon it," etc.

For this tract of land James M. Robbins, in an address delivered on the occasion of Milton's two hundredth anniversary, June 11, 1862, says Kitchamakin received "twenty-eight fathoms of wampum." He and his men continued to occupy the reservation until 1657, when they removed to the country about Ponkapog Pond, now in the Town of Canton.

An old map or plan of the purchase, made by John Oliver, shows the names of the landowners at the time it was prepared. The map bears no date, but as John Oliver died in 1646, it must have been made prior to that time. Upon it appear the names of Israel Stoughton, Richard Collicott, John Glover, William Hutchinson, John Holman, Robert Badcock, Nehemiah Bourne, William Daniels, Nicholas Ellen, Thomas Lewis, Anthony Newton, Andrew Pitcher, Bray Wilkins and William Salsbury.

Among these early settlers or landowners (a few of them did not occupy their holdings) the names of Richard Collicott and John Holman appear most frequently in the records, indicating that they were active in shaping the destinies of the new plantation. Collicott was "a licensed fur dealer," an occupation which brought him into intimate commercial relations with the Indians and doubtless explains why he was selected to negotiate the deal with the chief for possession of the land. He built his house on what is now Adams Street in 1634. It was of the style known as a "garrisoned house" and was used later by the

Town of Dorchester as a "guard house." Mr. Collicott served on the board of selectmen in Dorchester from 1637 to 1641 ; was a deputy to the General Court in 1637 ; was first sergeant of the Dorchester Artillery Company, and was otherwise prominent in town affairs. He died at Boston in 1686.

John Holman received a grant of no acres adjoining that of Collicott and settled there soon afterward, the property remaining in his family for nearly a century. He served several terms as one of Dorchester's selectmen; was one of the original members of the "Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company"; ensign of the first Artillery Company of Dorchester, and identified with many of the early events in Milton. His death occurred in 1652.

The Town Incorporated

For a little more than a quarter of a century after Dorchester received the grant of land south of the Neponset River and Mr. Collicott obtained the relinquishment of the Indian title, the region now embraced within the Town of Milton remained a part of Dorchester. By that time a number of families had gone into the new grant and developed farms, and in the autumn of 1661 a movement was started for the organization of a new town. It seems that Dorchester offered no opposition and the following petition was presented to the General Court :

"To the Honod Gene11 Court now assembled att Boston 7th May 1662 : The humble petition of us who are Inhabitants of that parte of ye Towne of Dorchester which is sittuated on the south side of ye Naponsett River commonly called Unquatiquisset Humbly showeth that ffor as much as it hath pleased God for to cast the bounds of our habitations in ye more remote partes of Dorchester Town as that we stand in a more remote capacitie unto a constant & comfortable attendance upon such administrations as doe respect sivill and ecclesiasticall communion in ye sayde Towne of Dorchester.

"Yet notwithstanding ye difficulties & allmost impossibilityes of ye constant attendance of us & our familyes have compelled not only our selves but allsoe ye Towne of Dorchester to acknowledge some necessitie of providing & settling a public ministry amongst our selves. And to that Purpose ye Towne of Dorchester (divers years since) granted us Libertie by our own contribution to maintayne our own Ministry. But we finding by experience that the orderly managing of such an Affair as Settlement hath some dependence upon ye exercise of Sivill Power unto ye effectual exercise of Which (as to ye attaynement of such an end) we find our selves alltogether out of a capacitie as now we stand therefore we have obtayned from ye Towne of Dorchester a second graunt libertie to become a Township of our selves - a coppie of which graunt we here withall present to the view of the Honble Court.

"Our humble petition to this Honble Court therefore is that (If according to ye terms & tenor of this graunt you shall in your wisdom judge us capable of being a Township) you would please by your authoritie to confirm the sd graunt unto us. And it beeing a more than ordinarie juncture of affaires with us as to our present Settlement we doe allsoe humbly crave our freedom from country rates according to the accustomed graunt to new Plantations we beeing (by Reason of our slowness & ye strait limitts of our place as unable ffor Publick Affayres as if we were a new Plantation).

"This cur humble petition is - If it shall bee by this Honord Court accepted wee hope wee shall doe what in us lyes to mannage affayres in our comunitie according to the laws of God & this Goverment out present design beeing the promotion of ye Public weale which that it may bee the period of your Consultations. So pray your humble petitioners.

No time was lost by the Court in the consideration of the petition, for on the very day it was presented (May 7, 1662) the township was incorporated. The original petition in the state archives bears the indorsment : "The deputyes thinkmeet to graunt this petition, viz. so far as it concernes ye Township but do not think meet to exempt them from rates."

In merely granting the petition the town was left without a name. To rectify this oversight the following action was taken later by the Court : "There having been granted to the inhabitants of Unketyquisset within ye Township of Dorchester to become a Township of themselves upon motion of your inhabitants it is ordered that ye said Town shallbee called Milton."

Stephen Kingsley, whose name appears as the first of the signers of the petition, was ordained a ruling elder of the church in Braintree in 1653. About three years later, after he, Henry Crane and Anthony Gulliver had purchased the, William Hutchinson grant, he removed to Unketyquisset, where it is stated he conducted the first religious services. He quickly became active in local affairs and drew up the petition which was signed by himself, Robert Vose and John Gill as a committee of the inhabitants, which petition resulted in the incorporation of the town as above noted.

The Town Name

The Indian name of the region now included in the Town of Milton was Unketyquisset (the name is spelled in various ways), but as that was too unwieldly the General Court adopted the name of Milton, at the request of the inhabitants. Three distinct theories as to the reason for the adoption of this name have been presented. The first says the town was named in honor of John Milton, the celebrated English poet, who in 1662 was at the zenith of his fame. The second says it was named from the old mill (Mill Town), which was erected by the inhabitants of Dorchester on the Neponset River in 1633. This was the first water-mill in New England. The third theory, which is perhaps the most plausible one, is that the town derived its name from Milton, England. There are, however, in England and Wales about twenty towns called Milton, or of which the word Milton forms some part of the name, and it is impossible to determine which one was copied in giving name to the Massachusetts town.

Early Taverns

Soon after the town was incorporated Roger Billings built a large house on what is now Canton Avenue and opened a tavern, which in a few years became noted for "its fancy dinners and high living." Mr. Billings died in 1683, when the name of the hostelry was changed to "Blue Hill Tavern." The house was torn down in 1885 and some of the timbers were used in building a barn.

The Bent Tavern was opened on the corner of Canton Avenue and Atherton Street by Lemuel or Rufus Bent about 1740. About 1790 the name was changed to the "Bradlee Tavern," when Stephen Bradlee took possession. He was a son of John Bradlee, who settled in Milton some years before the beginning the Revolution. Stephen Bradlee died in 1803 and the house was kept for some time by his widow. Then she married Maj. Jedediah Atherton, who in 1810 built a new tavern on the site of the old one and opened it as the "Atherton House."

White's (later Wild's) Tavern was in existence as early as 1787, for in that year there was considerable excitement in the town over the report that a man had died of yellow fever at this house.

Clark's Tavern, on Randolph Avenue, was built in 1809 by Samuel Tucker for his son Joshua, who conducted it for several years. Then Minot Thayer purchased the property and ran the tavern for some time. He was succeeded in turn by several other proprietors before the house ceased to be a place of entertainment for travelers.

Town Hall

From the time Milton was incorporated until 1835, the town meetings were held in the meeting house. In March, 1835, the annual meeting was held in the Academy Hall. On August 24, 1836, the trustees of the academy voted to rent to the town the lower story of the building for forty dollars a year. A few meetings were held here, when the selectmen obtained permission to use the old stone church known as the "Railway Village Meeting House." Just how many town meetings were held in this house is not certain, but in 1837 it was voted to pay the trustees of the church $300 for the use of the building.

At the same time this sum was voted a committee, consisting of John Ruggles, Jason Houghton, Jesse Tucker, Moses Gragg, Alva Martin, Walter Cornell and Samuel Adams, was appointed "to purchase a piece of land near the center of the town and proceed to erect thereon a town house not to exceed 40 by 60 feet, one story in height, and at a cost not to exceed $2,500." About that time the surplus that had accumulated in the United States Treasury during the administration of President Andrew Jackson was distributed among the states, and by the states to the counties and towns. Through this channel Milton received $3,424.89, which paid for the lot and town house and left a balance of $589.46 in the town treasury. This hall served the town for more than forty years.

At the annual meeting in March, 1878, the town voted an appropriation of $35,000 for a new town hall. William H. Forbes, Samuel Gannett, J. H. Wolcott, James M. Robbins, Samuel Babcock, George Vose, Edward L. Pierce, Horace E. Ware and Albert K. Teele were appointed a building committee, with instructions to procure plans and specifications and superintend the erection of the building. The plans selected were those prepared by Hartwell & Tilden, architects of Boston. William C. Poland &: Son of Boston were awarded the contract for the brick and stone work; Creesey & Noyes of Boston, the carpentry work; J. Farquhar's Sons of Boston, the roofing; and L. Cushman & Son of Waltham, the copper work. The roofing and copper work were afterward included in the contract of Creesey & Noyes, as were also the painting and glazing, except the interior decorative painting, which was done by W. J. McPherson of Boston. The new hall was dedicated on February 17, 1879, Edward L. Pierce of the building committee delivering the historical address. The total cost of the strucure was $34,959-°9-

The first postoffice in the town was established at Milton about the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Owing to the burning of the records at the time of the British attack on Washington in the War of 1812, it is impossble to give the exact date, but the office was in existence in 1801, with Dr. Samuel R. Glover as postmaster. He was succeeded by Moses Whitney in 1805, who held the office for some twelve years, when he resigned and Nathan C. Martin was appointed.

In April, 1872, the postoffice at East Milton was established, with J. W. Babcock as postmaster, and on April 1, 1874, the Blue Hill postoffice, on Canton Avenue near Harland Street, was opened for the receipt and delivery of mail, with Stillman J. Tucker as postmaster. This office at first received mail once a day through the postoffice at Mattapan. With the introduction of rural free delivery the postoffice at Blue Hill was discontinued, leaving but two offices in the town at the beginning of the year 1917.

The system of waterworks in Milton was built by the Milton Water Company and was purchased by the town in 1902 for $320,155.02, of which sum $120,546.67 was applied to the payment of bonds issued by the company prior to the time of purchase. The annual appropriations from 1903 to 19 16 inclusive aggregate $47,000, but of these appropriations $24,503.64 represents unexpended balances that were turned back into the treasury, making the net cost to the town at the close of the year 191 6 the sum of $342,651.38.

Since the plant was purchased by the town the mains have been extended until at the beginning of the year 1917 there were a little more than fifty-two miles, all of which except about one mile consisted of pipe more than four inches in diameter. The number of public hydrants was 401 and the total consumption of water for the year 1916 amounted to 135,878,000 gallons.

Fire Department

On February 24, 1670, a town meeting ordered that every householder should have a "lader long enough to reach to ye top of his house by the last day of ye Fifth Month, or pay ten shillings for faleure to do so & five shillings a month thereafter so longe as he shall neglect to provide sayd lader." - This is the first mention of fire protection to be found in the town records, though some precaution may have been made earlier, as the records for the first eight years are missing.

Oldest House In East Milton Observatory. Blue Hill Reservation, Milton

Stephen Badlam was elected clerk. The members of the society were exempted by the two towns from military duty and the payment of poll tax. The first engine was a small affair, filled by leather buckets. Nearly every house had two buckets kept in some convenient place, where they could be easily reached in case of fire, and a number of buckets was always kept with the engine.

The first suction engine - the "Fountain" - was kept near the end of the bridge, on the Dorchester side of the Neponset River. A little later the "Alert" was procured and stationed on the Milton side and there was a friendly rivalry between the two companies as to which could respond the more promptly and render the better service at a fire. In 1845 a hydrant engine was purchased for $1,200 and the same year a hook and ladder company was organized. A supply of hose was also purchased for the use of the fire company. Three years later the "Ninety's Hose Company" was organized. It is said to have taken its name from the "87 Hose Company," mentioned in "Doesticks," a volume published about that time. Better fire protection was afforded in 1861 when a line of pipe was laid from the mill to Canton Avenue and six hydrants were located thereon.

In 1881 an engine house was built by the town in the rear of the town hall, at a cost of $3,195 and a chemical engine was bought for $2,000 and placed in the new house. During the next two years a fire alarm system was installed, and at the close of 1883 there were twenty-three miles of wire and eighteen alarm boxes. At that time there were six reservoirs, in which water could be stored for fire emergencies! - one near the town hall, one on Central Avenue, and the other four at points in East Milton. The annual town meeting in 1887 made an appropriation for the purchase of a steam fire engine and the erection of an engine house at Milton Centre. This was the first steam fire engine introduced in the town.

According to the report of the board of fire engineers for the year ending on December 31, 1916, "The apparatus of the department now consists of 1 motor ladder truck with chemical tank attachment ; 1 750-gallon capacity motor pump engine ; 1 motor combination hose and chemical truck ; totalling a cost to the town of $19,450, all of which is housed in the Central Fire Station. The department also maintains horse-drawn combination hose and chemical apparatus at both East Milton and Brush Hill."

During the year 1916 the department answered 131 alarms, besides eight calls to Boston and six to Quincy. The value of property involved in the 131 fires in the town was $66,160 and the total loss by fire was $5,207.30, on which the property holders recovered insurance of $4,332.30, making the actual fire loss $875 - a record rarely equaled by town fire departments.

Financial History

Milton is the third wealthiest town in Norfolk County, being exceeded in this respect only by the Town of Brookline and the City of Quincy. According to the report of the assessors for the year 1916, the total valuation of property was $35,104,044. This is $1,965,319 lower than the valuation of 1915, but the decrease is not due to any real loss of property, being due merely to a readjustment of assessments by the board of assessors. On December 31, 1916, the funded debt of the town was $455,000, distributed as follows :

Of the school loans, $175,000 was authorized in 1916 for the purpose of erecting a new high school building. On the other side of the ledger the town property was valued as follows :

In addition to this municipal property, the treasurer reported assets consisting of cash on hand and uncollected assessments of $201,167. If this De added to the $1,035,159 representing the value of buildings, etc., the town has total assets of $1,236,326, or nearly three dollars for every dollar of the funded debt. Surely the holder of Milton's obligations need feel no anxiety as to the safety of his securities. The total appropriations made by the annual meeting in 1916 amounted to $397,705, to wit :

In a majority of the cases, as shown by the above table, the appropriations were in excess of the actual necessities, and the auditor, in his financial statement at the close of the year, reported unexpended balances amounting to $180,007. This shows that while the people of Milton are liberal in giving support to the town's institutions, the officials who have charge of the disbursement of public funds have been governed by reasonable concern for the interests of the taxpayers of the town, and that they have used good business judgment in making their contracts and purchases.

A Few First Things

The earliest recorded marriage was solemnized on November 30, 1671, when Ale Caig became the wife of Samuel Pilcher, though it is quite certain that this was not the first in the town - being only the first on record.

The first recorded death is that of Robert, son of Edward Vose, who died on November n, 1667. An infant son of John Keney died two days later.

The first mention of a school is in the records for March 4, 1669, when "Ebenezer Tucker was chose Scoole Master for the west end of the Town."

The first sermon was preached by Rev. Stephen Kingsley, but Rev. Joseph Emerson was the first regularly licensed clergyman to hold religious services in the town.

The first powder mill in this section of the colony was ordered in August, 1673. A company was at that time organized by Rev. John Oxenbridge and Rev. James Allen, pastor and teacher respectively of the First Church in Boston, Robert Sanderson, Capt. John Hull and Freegrace Bendall to build a mill for the manufacture of gunpowder. They brought over from England Walter Everendon as superintendent, and the mill was located just south of the Neponset bridge, on the Milton side of the river. At the time of King Philip's war the General Court ordered "a constant watch to be kept at Unkety for the preservation of the powder mill and the grist mill in its immediate vicinity."

The first paper mill was started in January, 1728, and the first chocolate mill in the fall of 1764. The first violoncello was made by Benjamin Crehore in 1798, and the first piano by the same man two years later.

Old Families

One little passage in the historical address of Edward L. Pierce at the dedication of the town hall, February 17, 1879, 1S worthy of more than passing notice. Said he : "There has been a continuity in the life of this town rare in municipal history. Growing in population by natural increase rather than by accessions from other places, there has been a steady flow of influence and character from one generation to another. Eight of the original trustees, to whom, in 1664, a tract of land was conveyed for a meeting house and other ministerial purposes, have always since had and still have descendants in the town bearing their names, and in some instances living upon and holding, without break in the chain of title, their ancestral acres - the Voses, Wadsworths, Tuckers, Sumners, Gullivers, Babcocks, Swifts and Cranes."

In 1910 the population of Milton, according to the United States census, was 7,924. The state census of 1915 reports it as 8,600, and in 1916 the superintendent of the waterworks estimates it at 8,933. These figures show a steady gain in the number of inhabitants, much of which is due as Mr. Pierce said in his address to "natural increase." Of the families mentioned by him, six were represented in the tax list for 1916, the Cranes and Gullivers being the only ones missing.

Milton has two banks, one of which has been in existence for nearly a century, a weekly newspaper (the Record), several churches, some manufacturing intertests, steam and electric railway transportation, and is one of the most desirable residence towns in the county.

Following is a list of the principal town officers at the beginning of the year 1917: James S. Russell, Maurice A. Duffy and James P. Mitchell, selectmen and surveyors of highways; G. Frank Kemp, clerk; J. Porter Holmes, treasurer; Clarence Boylston, William W. Churchill and Charles H. Home, assessors ; Josiah Babcock, tax collector ; J. H. Raymond and Frederick N. Krim, auditors ; Theodore T. Whitney, Jr., Howard Leslie and Thomas B. Gordon, water commissioners; Albert D. Smith, Arthur H. Tucker, Walter D. Brooks, Horace N. Plummer and Caroline E. Williams, overseers of the poor; Bernard W. Trafford, Malcolm Donald and J. Sumner Draper, park commissioners; Harris Kennedy, H. B. Edwards, Frank P. Fanning, Stephen C. Mitchell, Reginald L. Robbins and Eva B. Churchill, school committee; Maurice Pierce, Peleg Bronsdon, Timothy McDermott and George W. Higgins, constables ; Philip S. Dalton, James S. Gallagher and J. H. Holmes, fire engineers.