houses and furnishings have been well cared for. | words, "I am the Resurrection and the Life;" She has been nearly six years under the Boston school system; and two of her largest schoolhouses, in brick and stone, the Bennett and the Allston, were pronounced by the Mayor, at the recent dedication of the latter house, as among the finest in the city. As early as 1824 the Brighton Social Library was formed. It was established by proprietors, when, as yet, very few towns or cities in the state had public libraries for circulation. This social library was, in 1858, merged in the Brighton Library Association, a body of young men incorporated by the legislature for the circulation of books, for public lectures, for exercises in declamation, composition, and debate. Mr. James Holton, of an ancient family here, dying in 1863, left a bequest for a public town library, the provisions of which were fulfilled in 1864 by the town electing trustees, and organizing the Holton Public Library, successfully conducted for ten years. On the town's annexation with Boston, January, 1874, the imposing building in brick and freestone, on Rockland Street, which had been begun by the town, was completed by the city at a cost of $70,000, and was dedicated October 29, 1875, under the auspices of Mayor Cobb and the city officials, as a branch of the city library. The addresses of the Mayor and the president of the trustees, Mr. Greenough, with the address of dedication by Mr. Whitney, comprising full details of the occasion and institution of the library, were published by the city. Our sketch has thus far dealt with the living. The disposing of the dead claims notice. The first burial-ground was laid out on Market Street, nearly under the shadow of the ancient meeting-house, in 1764, the first in Cambridge (First Parish), which is opposite to the colleges, having been laid out in 1635. This ancient ground answered for interments on this side of the river until 1850, when the town purchased the beautiful well-wooded tract on South Street, known as the Aspinwall Woods, embracing nearly fourteen acres. Prepared with appropriate foot and carriage paths, made attractive with shrubbery, foliage, and flowers, Evergreen Cemetery was consecrated, in the presence of a large throng, August 7, 1850, by Rev. Mr. Swazey, assisted by Rev. Mr. Whitney. The becoming gateway, in Egyptian architecture, modelled after the first gateway in Mount Auburn, greets, from the outside, the coming mourner with the engraven and, from the inside, greets the mourner, who has laid down his dead, with the words, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you." The monument of Holton, founder of the Public Library, and many other interesting shafts, stand here; and the city government, by watchful care, is daily making it one of Boston's most attractive gardens of graves. Those gates, draped with the American flag intertwined with the insignia of mourning, opened wide to fast-gathering throngs on the 26th of August, 1866, for the dedication of the Soldiers' Monument. Brighton contributed very liberally of men and means for the suppression of the Rebellion. More than two hundred enlisted, and twenty-three furnished substitutes. The battle had been fought, the victory won. The returned soldiers had been received by their grateful fellow-citizens on the 22d of June previous in a spacious grove, — one of "God's first temples." They had been welcomed home by public procession, by the peal of bells, by the cannon that woke the echoes of our hills and valleys. And now, spared in the dreadful conflict of war, they sat down in safety, with grateful thousands, to testify that "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war." They were gathered about the graceful shaft in massive granite, which was one of the earliest in the state to be reared, on the termination of hostilities, to tell of the valor and to seal the memory of their departed comrades. In fitting words or address from Mr. Bickford, chairman of the selectmen, of scripture, hymns, and prayer from Rev. Mr. Bowles, and by an oration from the writer of these records, the monument was formally consecrated. Here it will be in place to note the tradition that while Colonel Gardner, borne wounded from Bunker Hill, as already detailed, lay dying at his sister's house, General Washington, mounted, and accompanied by his aids, rode "across the river " and visited the intrepid hero. Surely, as we recall the noble, sympathetic heart of Washington, we may lift this out from the shadow of tradition, and exclaim, "It must be truth." Written history has it that General La Fayette, while at Boston in June, 1825, visited Brighton and was hospitably received at the hotel, now on the corner of Washington and Cambridge Streets, the same building which in early times had been the mansion-house of the Winship family. It was occupied, at the period of the General's visit, by | Mr. Samuel Dudley. The school children were arranged in lines, between which the General, attended by his son, Mr. George Washington La Fayette, passed. Some then present recall perfectly the brilliant pageant of that bright June day. The kiss the good General impressed on more than one fair brow passed thence upon the memory and lingers there to-day. It is further recorded that Henry Clay visited the town in October, 1833, and was entertained by the citizens at a collation in the large dining-hall of the Cattle Fair Hotel, erected in 1830 in Market Square. The published narrative states that Mr. Clay recognized in "the yards" some of his fine steers, which, by a long journey in that day, had yet found their way from Ashland, Kentucky, before him, to the spot. Doubtless their large expressive eyes looked as gladly upon their master as did those of Webster's noble steers when led, in October, 1851, to his open window, on the broad green lawn, where he lay, dying, in his Marshfield mansion. "Oak Square," a pleasant portion of the town on its west border, was thus named by vote of the town, March 5, 1860, as comprising all the town's land at the junction of Washington, Faneuil, and Nonantum Streets. Here stood the "Old Oak Tree," in close proximity to the school-house. The state commissioners, appointed in 1837 to make a zoological and botanical survey of Massachusetts, spent eight years in their work, and published, in thick octavo, a report on the forest trees and shrubs of Massachusetts. They presented this as the largest and oldest white-oak tree in their survey of the whole state. Its circumference on the ground was given as twenty-five feet and nine inches, two feet and three inches more than the circumference of the Great Elm on Boston Common. Through decay, the trunk was hollow at the base. The vast weight of wide-spreading branches was sustained at last by a mere shell of trunk, and the tree was ordered to be cut down, in May, 1855, from fear of its possible fall. The wigwam of Waban, chief of the Nonantums, lay a little west of the tree, in Newton, and he must often have The tree was painted by Harvey, of Boston. A minute description of it, and of its removal, was published in the Boston Transcript of July 26, 1855. But its age? Mr. Emerson and his scientific commission, in their rich botanical lore, must be our authority. Read his words very deliberately: "It had probably passed its prime, centuries before the first English voice was heard on the shores of Massachusetts Bay." On the estate of Mr. George H. Brooks, on Faneuil Street, late the estate of his father, Samuel Brooks, earlier the estate of Thomas Sparhawk, and, still further back, of Nathaniel Oliver, is a natural spring of water slightly impregnated with iron, and of valuable properties. A granite curb about it is inscribed, as then located, 1832. But the spring, still free-flowing, constant, cold, salubrious, was, more than fifty years ago, a wellknown resort for invalids. There are several ancient historic mansions in this town dating back to early Cambridge days. Some are rich in old-time associations with the Revolution, with tales of confiscation and political feuds. On Price's map of Boston, of 1743, on which buildings and blocks are singly and specially engraved, one, as he looks southwest to the noble range of hills, the Corey and Nonantum, in this ward, will see a magnificent house of great size and height and quaint architecture, with terraces and gårdens about it. Inscribed on the map above the | Faneuil's only daughter married George Bethune, Sr. house is "Capt. Cunningham's seat." Though Susan, daughter of Mr. Bethune, married at this not lying in Boston, but in South Cambridge, after-house, 1778, Edmund Dunkin, who came to this wards Brighton, it was brought within the range country in 1775. They were parents of several of Price's "Prospect of the Town of Boston," for children born here; and likewise of Benjamin its rare magnificence of locality and surroundings. Faneuil Dunkin, born in Philadelphia, a classmate This grand estate subsequently became the property and friend of Edward Everett at Harvard College, of Charles Ward Apthorp, who sold it in 1762 to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South CaroMr. John Dennie, whose name appears on com- lina. The estate was subsequently in possession of mittees in this sketch. While occupied by Mr. Thomas English, until purchased by Samuel ParkDennie, it was accidentally burned to the ground, man of Boston, whose son, Mr. John Parkman, January, 1770. The friends of Mr. Dennie imme- occupied it until his death. Mr. Samuel Bigelow diately contributed very generously for his relief, owned and occupied it from 1838, making extensive and the mansion was at once rebuilt. Mr. Dennie alterations and accessions. He sold the estate in died August 7, 1777, aged fifty-seven. The place 1864 to James M. Murdock. The present owner was subsequently owned and occupied by Samuel and occupant is Mr. Luther Adams. It is still a W. Pomeroy; by Jared Coffin from Nantucket, place of uncommon beauty and historical interest. 1843; and is now the estate and residence of his son-in-law, David Nevins. The large estate of Gorham Parsons, long famous for its well-cultivated and ornamented grounds, was sold in 1838, and subdivided in lots, as its owner, enfeebled in health, retired to his home farm at Byfield, where he died, 1843, at the age of seventysix. The original mansion, formerly the Charles Apthorp place, remains, and is of great antiquity. The Champney house and the Dana house are each two hundred years old. Mr. Dennie's sympathies, as is well known, were strongly with England in the Revolution; and prominent on the subscription paper are the names of the leading men of Boston who so sympathized, as Harrison Gray, Nathaniel Bethune, John Irving, Ralph Inman, John Apthorp, and many others. The paper opens: "Boston, January 16, 1770. Whereas the dwelling-house of our good friend, It becomes us to name those who have made Mr. John Dennie, together with a great part of his bequests to the town. Mr. Ebenezer Smith, whose furniture and winter stores to his very great loss birth is in the Cambridge records, March 9, 1688-9, and the peculiar distress of his family at this season son of Henry and Lydia (Buck) Smith, was a man of the year, was lately consumed by fire, we the of very large estate for that day, and most promisubscribers, in order to alleviate his present mis- nent in the civil and religious history of this place. fortune, do cheerfully promise to pay to him, or to He died, unmarried, in an ancient house still standMr. Thomas Gray of Boston, Merchant, for the use ing. It could have told its tale of the Revolution and benefit of our Said Friend, the sums set against when its venerable owner of nearly ninety years our names." Three hundred pounds were sub- was wont to sit there in his arm-chair. His will scribed, in sums of forty pounds and less; and is very voluminous, so numerous and varied are his among the neighbors of Mr. Dennie, and fellow- bequests. We name only the parsonage estate, at worshippers at the ancient church presented in this the foot of Rockland Street, with money to the sketch, are the names of James Bryant, George ancient Precinct Parish; and, for the benefit of Dana, Edward Jackson, and others. Traditions of the school here, six acres of woodland in Newton, the wonderful fire of 1770-an event rarer then to supply poor children, in place of the inevitable than now—and of the daring exploits of the " Har-"twenty-five cent tax for fire-wood," on comvard boys," with their small college engine, lived far down into this century. The ancient Faneuil estate, on Faneuil Street, is another of the eminently historic mansions of old Middlesex. It was built before the middle of the last century by Benjamin Faneuil, whose brother Peter, of Faneuil Hall memory, spent much of his mencing their winter school. A grateful people inscribed above his tomb, in the ancient burialground here, "Intombed MR. EBENEZER SMITH, who died, "This, as a testimony of gratitude and esteem, is here time here. The first house was burned by a treach-inscribed by the Parish Society, to which he was a friend erous servant and immediately rebuilt. Benjamin and benefactor." ton, will probably, with the increasing call for house-lots, inure to the benefit of our Boston treasury. The gift of Mr. Stephen Hastings Bennett of this town, in 1861, of land on Winship Place, Agricultural Hill, for the erection of the first Bennett Grammar School-house, is fully detailed in the town school report of that year. The city authorities, after annexation, caused a marble slab to be inscribed with Mr. Bennett's name on the front of their large school-house on Chestnut Hill Avenue, in recognition of some privileges in connection with his bequest. This land passed, at the date of annexation, to the owner of the fine old mansion on Bowen Hill,. the city of Boston; and, centrally situated in New-named for him, where he carried on the art of printing as early as 1800. Colonel Isaac Munroe was born here, April 26, 1783; first apprenticed to Benjamin Russell, founder of the Boston Patriot; died, founder and editor of the Baltimore Patriot, December 21, 1859, aged seventy-four, eminent in character, as for signal editorial capacity. Hon. Joseph Adams Pond, an adopted citizen of Brighton, died, president of the Massachusetts senate, October 28, 1867, — suddenly stricken down on the 24th at the State House in the dawn of his rising fame, at the early age of forty. Sara P. (Willis) Parton, more widely known by her nom, de plume, Fanny Fern, was a resident some years here; Dr. Eldridge, father of her first husband, was a physician here. Hon. Joseph Breck, the veteran horticulturist, florist, and author of some: of the best books on flowers, was president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and a state senator; he died here, June 14, 1873, aged seventy-eight. Captain Samuel G. Adams, born at Brighton, November 22, 1825, is now developing rarest gifts and reputation in his responsible station as general superintendent of Boston Police. Henry Baldwin, born at Brighton, son of Life and Susanna D. (Dudley) Baldwin, January 7, 1834, is Judge of the Municipal Court, Boston (Brighton District). James Holton Rice, born at Brighton, September 14, 1839, son of Edmund and Martha Ann (Fletcher) Rice, is clerk of the Muncipal Court Boston (Brighton District).. William Wirt Warren, born at Brighton, February 27, 1834, son of William and Abigail Lyman (Bannister) Warren, was senator of Massachusetts; representative from this district in the Forty-third Congress. William Henry Baldwin, born at Brighton, Octo-, ber 20, 1826, son of Henry and Mary (Brackett) Baldwin, is president of the Young Men's Christian Union. Let his own works praise him. Joseph Bass Eaton, a late munificent benefactor to the Three families, among the very earliest in the founding of Cambridge, settled on the south side of Charles River, afterwards Brighton, namely, Richard Dana, Elder Richard Champney, and Nathaniel Sparhawk. To their names we may add that of Lieutenant Edward Winship, who settled on the College side in 1635, but whose descendants, in the succeeding generations, were early and largely represented on this side. Richard Dana died here, April 2, 1690, from the effects of a fall; is represented by a lineal descendant of the sixth generation, Mr. James Dana, now in his seventy-fifth year, with other branches of the family. Richard Champney, fellow-passenger and close friend of Shepard, the first minister of Cambridge, is represented by William Richards Champney, of the fifth generation, in his eighty-second year. The Sparhawk family is represented by Edward Corey Sparhawk, who, in his seventy-sixth year, owns and occupies the ancestral estate, which has never been separated from the Sparhawk name. Of those who from public official station or authorship in this place attained distinction the names of Rev. Dr. Worcester, and the wife and daughters of Rev. Dr. Foster have been cited. Rev. East Apthorp, D. D., founder and first rector of Christ Church, Cambridge, was born at Brigh-above Union of $80,000, was born in Boston, 1803, ton, then South Cambridge, 1733. He was distinguished for his learned controversy with Rev. Dr. Mayhew of the West Church, Boston; for his intellectual gifts; and as builder of that noted edifice on Main Street, Cambridge, sometimes called the Bishop's Palace. Daniel Bowen, who opened the first museum in Boston in 1791, resided here for a quarter of a century; he was but was for several years pupil here in the classical school of Mr. Jacob Knapp. Rev. Titus Strong, D. D., author, and forty years rector in Greenfield, was born in Brighton, January 28, 1787; died June 11, 1855; mentioned by Allibone, Sprague, and Drake (Francis S.) for numerous works on education and theology. BURLINGTON. BY SAMUEL SEWALL. ITUATED in the easterly part | obliged to travel four or five miles to attend public of the county, Burlington is worship, crossing the deep drifts in winter with the bounded on the northwest by aid of snow-shoes. Bedford and Billerica, on the northeast by Wilmington, on the east by Woburn, and on the southwest by Lexington. It is thirteen miles northwest of Boston, on the old stageroad from Boston to Lowell. It has no direct railroad connection, the nearest station being at Woburn Centre, . three miles distant. Burlington is almost entirely an agricultural town, having but little manufacturing or mechanical business. The centre of the town is on elevated ground, from which may be had many fine views of the surrounding country. The soil, for the most part, is good for farming purposes. The people are largely employed in raising fruit, hay, vegetables, and milk for the market. Vine Brook, one of the principal branches of the Shawshine River, flows through the southwesterly part of the town, watering many acres of meadow land, and furnishing power for a saw and grist mill, and to one factory for printing woollen cloths, owned by Thomas Barr and Company. Sources of Ipswich River originate in the easterly part of the town. Burlington was originally a part of Woburn. That ancient town, incorporated in 1642, included Burlington and a large portion of Wilmington. A church was gathered in 1642, and for eighty years afterward all the inhabitants of the town were harmoniously united in one religious society, and met for public worship in the meeting-house at Woburn. But during these years many buildings had been erected in the northwesterly part of the town, then called Shawshine, and now known as Burlington, and many people of substance and reputation had made their homes in this region, at a distance of several miles from the meeting-house of Woburn. Tradition states that some of the people were Despite the pious zeal of those days, the inhabitants of Shawshine began to manifest much uneasiness at the hardships they were thus obliged to undergo, and to seek earnestly for a change. After five years of struggle to effect a separation from the church of their fathers, Shawshine was incorporated, by order of the provincial legislature, as the Second Parish or Precinct of Woburn, September 16, 1730, Old Style, or, according to our present mode of reckoning, September 27, 1730. Two years afterward, in 1732, a meeting-house was built in Woburn Precinct. But the separation as a parish did not satisfy the inhabitants of the precinct, and, notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the people of Woburn, who strongly objected to losing any part of their widely extended territory, the efforts for a final division at last succeeded. Woburn Precinct was incorporated as the town of Burlington, February 28, 1799. The population of Burlington, at this time, was 534. In 1810 it had fallen off to 471, but increased during the next ten years, reaching 508 in 1820. By the last census (1870) the population was 650. There are five schools in the town, four of which are in session throughout the year, and one additional during the winter months. The public library of Burlington, free to all inhabitants of the town over the age of twelve years, was established in 1858. It now contains 1,100 volumes. Previous to the establishment of this library, a social library had been formed in the town. It was incorporated under an act of the commonwealth made and passed in 1798. The proprietors met, for the purpose of choosing officers, etc., September 9, 1816. The number of proprietors whose names appear signed to the constitution and by-laws is twenty-two. Shares were sold for two dollars each, the holders being subject to au annual assessment of twenty-five cents apiece, |