Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-02-03
EARLY BOSTON,.
Opening Lecture of Hale Course
Before Society of Antiquity.
Edward Everett Hale Delivers the First
Lecture of the Antiquity Course Before
An Appreciative Audience.

About one hundred and seventy-five
persons attended the lecture of Rev.
Edward Everett Hale in Salisbury Hall,
Wednesday evening.
| Dr. Hale's subject was the early his
| tory of Boston-not a political history,
! but household history as he might
| term it-of the early settlement and
| topography of Boston with especial ref
erence to the historic interest of many
Of the old streets and buildings. At the
end of the lecture several views of the
men, places, and the old maps of Capt.
John Smith and Champlain were shown
| by the stereopticon, and the audience
was invited to remain and look at col
| lection of engravings illustrative of col
onial life loaned by Librarian Barton of
| the Antiquarian Society.
In opening his address, DR.. Hale re-
| GREETED the non-appearance Of some
large maps which he said were at last
accounts snow-bound somewhere be-
tween Dedham and Wellesley. The year
| 1000,' said Dr. Hale, rs the earliest date
| BoStonianS can turn to- in their history,
for it is about that time that the Morse
sages fix the settlement of Thorwald
somewhere on our North American
| coast, brought here by the fame of Lief
Ericsson; but the first undisputed date of
y
when William Blackstone built him a
house near a spring Of good water, and,
planting an orchard. lived alone there
| for ten years, till 1884, when he sold MS
| land for ESQ to Richard Pepys OF the
Massachusetts Bay colony brought over
| by Gov. Winthrop. Blackstone's name
remains in Blackstone street, Boston, and
in our Blackstone river, ON which ne
| lived near Woonsocket after leaving
Boston. Not much is known of the life
Of this interesting figure, save that he
returned to Boston in 1859 to be married.
| land to think that this Cambridge grad
uate, fond of good water and sweet
smelling orchard should leave his name
| to the Blackstone riverD He gave as his
reason for leaving Boston, in the words
! of Emerson. He liked the lord brethren
as little as he liked the lord bishop.
"The Massachusetts Bay colony who
| came over with Winthrop anchored their
vessels off the site of the present navy
yard at Charlestown in 1884, on a date
afterward memorable June IT, Of the
| 1000 voyageTs, two hundred had already
organized, and making their way to
! Mattapan, settled the present town Of
! Dorchester.
! Two hundred more died within a year
| or two, and yet another two hundred
| returned with the vessels to England,
| leaving about four hundred people at
| CharleStOWn.
| From Charlestown, Winthrop Went
over to Blackstone peninsula on the in
| vitation of the latter, and was attract
ed by his spring of good water, so that
! soon one hundred of the colonists came
across to settle.
! To Winthrop was allotted tract Of
| ten acres just north of the present Old
South meeting house, and today the
same spring supplies water for the post
| office building. 1t is to be hoped that
some rich antiquarian will one Of these
| days erect there a fountains and com
memorate this spring of good water.
| One of the richest and most influential
members Of the colony was Johnson.
| and to him was allotted the land now
bounded by Fremont, School, Washing
| ton and Court streets, but he died be-
fore his house was built. The other
colonists did not ask to change their
allotted lands for those Of Johnson, and
thus 1t was that it became public land.
A cemetery was needed, and it was To-
Gated here. Then came a Jail, court
house and a school house. Kings
chapel marks the site of Johnson S
house, and the court house stands on
the site of the old one which gave its
name to Court street.
In the old Boston, the streets were
laid out to skirt the line of the hills,
ana so the city is not on the checker
board plan approved by William Penn.
Next Wednesday, Dr. Hale viii con-
tinue his subject.