Quincy History Fifty Cents Quincy Historical Society, Quincy Massachusetts #: 7 Spring, 1982

Brewer's Corner, Quincy, in 1919. Looking west from Water Street to Copeland Street. Beyond the little boy is the awninged grocery store of M. o 'Keeffe. The conical

roof is on the tower of the Casey building at the corner of Granite Street and Copeland. Photograph from the Warren Parker Collection of the Thomas Crane Public Library.

Brewer's Corner Formed By Granite Industry By H. HOBART HOLLY

Society Historian

Brewer's Corner is the center of a distinctive neighborhood of Quincy, a part of home to many people for nearly one hundred years.

From the days of the early settle­ment, this was Nightingale country. Many members of that family lived on farms along the ancient "Road to the Woods", now Granite Street.

Then in the mid-1800s the granite industry developed in Quincy. Granite Street became the main road to the quarry area of West Quincy, and just to the north of our subject area was the

North Common quarry area. Near the quarries and in South Quincy were the shops where the granite was fashioned. Most of the granite workers came from outside of Quincy. .

So it was that the quarrymen, stone­cutters and blacksmiths, mostly from northern Europe, came and built their homes in West Quincy, and on what had been farms along Granite Street, Copeland Street, W~ter Street, Garfield Street, and in other nearby areas. At first most of the workers in this area had names of British origin. Then came people from Sweden and Finland, and with them characteristics

of the cultures and institutions that they brought with them to America. Eventually Brewer's Corner became a center for these people of Scandina­vian origin.

It was the developing granite industry starting in the 1830 period that created our five-corners area on old Granite Street. Right at the junction in 1876 were the homes of three stonecutters, one blacksmith, a teamster and a farmer with the names of Craig, Thompson, Ellis, D. Jones, . W. Jones and G. W. Brooks

(Continued on Page Two)

Page Two - QUINCY HISTORY

Brewer's Corner, a Scandinavian Neighborhood (Continued from Page One)

respectively. The corner had no official name.

The name Brewer's Corner first appears in a Quincy Directory of 1895. By that time the old crossroads had become the center of the community.

" ... a part of home to many people for nearly one hundred years."

At Garfield and Granite Streets was the establishment of Frank Brewer; hence the name . In 1880 he was listed as a grocer . Over the years between then and 1905 he had additional listings of provisions, boots and shoes, hay and grain , and for a few years druggist. Next to him on Granite Street was Frederick J. Pierson , gents

furnishings and variety store, a business that continued for over twenty-five years . On the corner of Copeland and Garfield Streets was Lemuel G. Murray, druggist, from 1896 to 1910.

Across Copeland Street at the corner of Granite Street, Mrs. Emma Lark had a variety store , confectionery and dining room. She operated the business from 1893 until her death in 1913 after which the store was continued by Harry Lark until about 1930. Next door on Copeland Street was the dry and fancy goods store of Adah A. Bartlett from 1884 to J915. On Granite Street, a short distance south of Water Street was the Swedish Baptist Church . The congregation moved here from Station Street in West Quincy in 1896 and remained until 1921 .

A landmark business of a somewhat later date was the United Co-operative

Society of Quincy which was located at 32 Copeland Street from the early 1920s until 1945 when it moved to 380 Granite Street. This was a cooperative grocery and meat market owned and operated by the Swedish and Finnish residents of the area. Through the years other businesses located,

"The name Brewer's Corner first appeared in a Quincy Directory of 1895."

especially along Copeland Street. On nearby streets were the Swedish and Finnish social organizations and the Finnish Church , all parts of a distinc­tive community that grew up around Brewer's Corner.

(Mr. Holly, author of this article, is historian for the society and served as its president for two decades.)

Spire of Methodist Episcopal Church dominates this 1919 photograph of Brewer's Corner, looking south up Granite Street. Skirts were longer and automobiles breezier then.

From the Warren Parker Collection of the Thomas Crane Public Library.

One Copeland Street, Brewer's Corner, was the site of the J. W. Fletcher Pharmacy in 1919, and a pharmacy still

QUINCY HISTORY - Page Three

occupies that corner. From the Warren Parker Collection of the Thomas Crane Public Library.

Three Exhibits At Quincy Historical Society . An Extension of the Hand:

The exhibit includes the tools of several local craftsmen who practiced their trades in and close to Quincy nearly a century ago. In the words of Eric S~oan~, "When we muse on is crfic tools -as symbols, we are always analyzing the romance of human progress. " Tools "reflect the conscience and personality of their users."

The exhibition looks at old tools as objects of art, in many cases lovingly constructed by their owners to last for generations. Through them we sense the values of quality, durability, and integrity which characterized the work of so many of our ancestors.

Images of the Past: Quincy 1877

E. Whitefield's 1877 pictorial map of Quincy is the centerpiece for a photographic essay of Quincy in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Remembrance of the Just: Early New England Gravestones

-.

The exhibit will give an overview of New England gra~estone _folk art ..in th~ ~e~eenth_and:_ f-~ elgnteenth centunes using tFie photographs of Daniel and Jessie Lie Farber. Mr. Farber's 2500 gravestone photographs are part of the collections of the American Antiquarian Society and the Yale University Art Library, and his nature photographs appear in the collections of 109 museums, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Jessie Lie Farber is Professor Emeritus at Mount Holyoke College and was a founder of the Association for Gravestone Studies.

The exhibit will include photographs of stones from the Hancock Cemetery and will include areas on iconography, stonecutters, epitaphs, and conservation and care of ancient gravestones.

Page Four - QUINCY HISTORY

A Presidential Retrospect & Prospect Dr. James R. Cameron

Society President

As my term of office as president of the Quincy Historical Society draws to a close, the editor of "Quincy History", Richard W. Carlisle, asked me to reflect on the development of the Society during my administration and to offer suggestions for the immediate future. After many years as an active member of the Society, it has been a privilege for me to serve the organization as its president.

The achievements of recent years result from the cooperative efforts of the Society's many members, its elected leaders, and its staff. I would express the appreciation of the Society to Mayors Arthur H. Tobin and Francis X. McCauley, both of whom have taken an active interest in the work of the Society and have supported its community services. The City of Quincy made CET A trainees available to the Society as long as that program was in operation. This is only one of the many ways in which the City of Quincy has actively supported our efforts.

We have a small but very talented and efficient staff which carryon the operations of the Society: Lawrence J. Yerdon, Executive Director; William N. Twombly, Museum Technician; Ann J. Howley and Priscilla M. Chartier, Secretaries. The corps of volunteers has been retained and even expanded. These men and women work in the library, work with our collections, help stage our Christmas exhibit, run our auction, provide greeters and serve refreshments at regular and special meetings and perform countless other tasks. During the past year, under the leadership of Linda Day, ' the Society

Goal: "Establishment of a core exhibit which depicts the history of Quincy."

has established a very successful Museum Shop.

Through the skill of Larry Yerdon, our Executive Director, in writing grant

proposals, the Society has been the recipient of several grants from public and private foundations. Funds for the "Quincy Remembers" Public Program Series in each of the past two years

". . . we have not yet achieved our potential on the history of Quincy."

came in part from the Institute of Museum Services. These grants also enable us to secure the services of a Museum Technician, William Twombly, who has arranged several series of programs, staged exhibits, provided more adequate facilities for storing our collections as well as restoring many of our important holdings, bicycles for example. One of our current exhibits, "An Extension of the Hand: Tools of the New England Craftsman" was arranged by Will.

We are prolid of our Leonard C. Wirtanen Research Library. Our Executive Director, has recently completed editing the Richard Cranch Papers, one of our treasures. At a recent meeting of the Society, John C. Swanson presented an address based upon research which he did in the library for his baccalaureate thesis at Eastern Nazarene College. To promote further research and writing of local history, the Society has established the Richard T. LaBrecque Historical Essay Contest for local high school students. These items simply highlight the faithful work of our historian, H. Hobart Holly, our librarian, Mary J. Clark, and the library committee. The essay contest has been inaugurated by the Education Committee, under the leadership of Nancy Santry.

Over the past two years a successful effort has been made to provide a strong committee structure headed by members of the Board of Directors to offer guidance to the Board and assistance to the Executive Director. Most committees are composed of both Board members and other members of the Society. This provides a practical method for training future Board Members as well as actively

. involving members of the Society.

One of the goals which we have failed to achieve must remain at a very high priority - the establishment of a core e~hibit which depicts the history of Quincy. In spite of the growth which the Society has achieved in many areas in recent years, there will remain a basic dissatisfaction until a core exhibit has been staged in which we can all take pride! A second goal that I would desire is the development of educational programs on the history of Quincy which would appeal to all age levels, not simply to public school children. We have provided programs on many topics for all age groups but we have not yet achieved our potential on the history of Quincy. The Society must continue to work with community organizations in promoting historical and cultural interests. The Adams Academy Building was recently the site of a program and exhibits on scouting on the South Shore in celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. With the support of a grant from the Fred E. Bergfors Fund, the Society is presenting a series of Sunday afternoon lectures on Contemporary Art in America. The Quincy Historical Society has many achievements for which it can justly be proud, but there remain enough unmet goals to keep us humble.

Quincy History Published by the Quincy Historical Society at Adams Academy, 8 Adams Street , Quincy, Massachusetts, 02169. This is the seventh bulletin published under this name. Previous issues were Spring, 1980; Fall, 1980; Winter, 1981; Spring, 1981 ; Fall, 1981; Winter, 1982.

Dr. James R. Cameron President

Richard W. Carlisle Editor

Lawrence J. Yerdon Executive Director

The Quincy Historical Society , incorporated November 16, 1893 , maintains the Adams Academy Building as a museum, library, visitor information center and place of meeting. The purposes of the Society are: to represent historical interests in the community, to preserve materials and information related to Quincy history through exhibits, programs and educational activities, and to publish materials of historical significance.

QUINCY HISTORY - Page Five

Red Indians and White Invaders

Violence At Wessagussett Trading Post By Dr. George R. Horner

Society Archaeologist

(Editor's Note: This is the final installment of Dr. Horner's three-part appraisal of the European-Native American confrontation along Massachusetts' South Shore. Here he tells how the Indians' trust in the Pilgrims turned to fear.)

After spending the winter of 1622 at Plymouth and making life miserable for the Pilgrims and themselves, Weston and his company moved a few miles up the coast near the Massa­chusetts village of Wessagussett at the confluence of the (now) Town and Fore ­Rivers . The sole purpose for this move was to encourage the Indians of the Massachusetts Federation to trade beaver to them rather than to the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

The Wessagussett " stragglers", as Bradford described them, deliberately provoked and intimidated the Indians by stealing both corn and beaver from them: a strange way to encourage trade! Although it is true that they were recompensed for the former in kind and that a young man was hung for the latter (or perhaps, as some said , an old man), a Spring raid was planned by the Massachusetts , Nausets and a scattering of others, led by the Massachusetts Sachem Witawamet, to destroy both the Wessagussett and Plymouth settle­ments as "soon as the snow disappears", in retaliation for the thievery .

News of the raid came to Bradford at Plymouth through two different sources: Because Winslow had restored to health a very ill Massasoit to health , Massasoit warned Winslow of the planned attack. Massasoit's faith in the Pilgrims was restored by this act of mercy. Bradford had no sympathy for the traders at Wessa­gussett trading post, he sent Captain Standish - a " schrymp of a man" - to destroy them. However, before Standish sailed, a trader from Wessa­gussett , one Phineas Pratt, warned Plymouth of the planned attack.

At Wessagussett Standish ordered three of the Massachusetts Indian leaders and a boy into a building and, at a signal his men killed them. The boy escaped to tell the gathering warriors of the massacre. Several days

Early Americans quarry granite and form stone tools at outcropping near Blue Hills , as imagined in painting by Michael McWade. From the collection of William and Margaret O'Connell.

later several of the Wessagussett soldiers were killed by these warriors. The post was disbanded, the remaining traders sailed to Maine.

At Plymouth, the Pilgrims had established a good relationship based upon mutual trust: it might be said that after the attack at Wessagussett, the relationship the Pilgrims had with the Massachusetts Indians was one of fear. This fear was so great that few Indians planted corn that Spring. Commenting upon the massacre, Pilqrim John Robinson wrote: "Oh,

how happy a thing it would have been if you had converted some before you killed any - You say they deserve it? -but upon what provocations and invitements by those heathenish Christians? ' , The massacre was not forgotten for the next fifty years . It would be remembered 300 years later.

Morton At Merrymount What a delightful scoundrel, poet,

geographer and sometimes anthro­pologist was this one-time lawyer,

(Continued on Page Six)

Page Six· QUINCY HISTORY

Violence At Wessagussett Trading Post (Continued from Page Five)

Thomas Morton. Why can't we remember him for writing the NEW ENGLISH CANAAN rather than the escapades atop Mare-Mount and his selling guns to the Massachusetts Indian nation?

In the Spring of 1625, with thirty gentlemen adventurers, he moved into Captain Richard Wollaston's trading post near the Indian village of Pesson­agisett, at the foot of (now) Mt. Wollaston.

With knowledge of what had happened at Wessagussett, Morton shrewdly determined that the Massa­chusetts Indians had to be bought to become his allies by offering them guns in exchange for beaver. The May-pole was included to show compatability" fraternity , friendship and contempt _ for Cromwell's Blue Laws. Had his plan succeeded, he would certainly cornered the beaver market and would have found himself in a corner as well. It is true that the Pilgrims would have suffered from the loss of the beaver pelts in the trade wars of that day, but as Bradford rightly reasoned in 1628, those guns would have been a threat to the survival of all the white settlements along the New England coast from Maine to Connecticut: not excluding Morton himself.

Early in June of 1628, Bradford again sent Standish, this time to intercept Morton at Wessagussett where the latter was visiting. Morton escaped his captor and made his way to Mare-Mount overland, on foot. He crossed the Monatiquot river just above the present Weymouth Landing, Braintree, crossed the hills in a severe thunder shower and accompanied by the distant presence of howling wolves, he traveled a very uncomfortable eight miles, as he reckoned the distance (more like five at the most), to his destination, only to find Standish waiting to successfully recapture him at Mare-Mount. After his arrest and trial, Morton was returned to England.

Conclusions The Pilgrim's attitudes and behavior

toward the Wampanoaqs was based upon trust and friendship. They made

no treaties with any other of the Indian Federations of this type. Through 1676 both the Pilgrims and the Wam­panoags supported this treaty.

Trading was second to the Pilgrims. Accompanied by women and children,

"Ultimately, the Native Americans were the losers ... "

their first priority was to build homes and a permanent colony.

Weston, as a transient trader, introduced to the Indians two new dimensions of European attitudes and behavior: exploitation and fear with theiJ: resultant behavior of distrust and dissension.

Morton was also a transient trader . He introduced to the Massachusetts the idea that "friendship" can be

achieved by exchanging guns for beaver and exploiting this "friend­ship" by introducing the Indian maidens and others to a pre­Cromwellian English May-pole dance in a show of "togetherness". Both failed.

The conclusions of this paper were enacted over 300 years ago. They were f9regone conclusions when the Pilgrims landed on the Rock in Patuxet Harbor. -

Ultimately the Native Americans were the losers: losing both property -and privacy to these powerful white invaders and within a few years submerged in a commonwealth ironically named Massachusetts.

(Reprinted with the permission of the Pilgrim Society, Plymouth from PILGRIM SOCIETY NOTES, No. 29, May, 1981: THE PILGRIMS AND THE WAMPANOAGS: A SURVEY OF A TTITUDES AND BEHA VIOR IN THE EARL Y YEARS, with additional material by the author.)

A Quincy Fades Away, But There Are Others

In 1853 the first town in Iowa's Adams County was named Quincy, and that year may have been the town 's best.

Four years later the town of Corning was incorporated and it becaine the county seat. It also was on the railroad line, and Quincy wasn't.

So, as did several others of America's twenty Quincys, Quincy, Iowa, began to lose importance, and then to lose population-.

In 1957 Mrs. Grace Dick of Quincy, Iowa, wrote to Quincy, Mass., inquirer about her town's fate : "I am the very last of QUincy's 'Pioneer Children', -now past 71 years of age. When the Corning postmaster gets some piece of mail for Quincy he sends it to our box."

Mrs. Dick's town was named for John Quincy Adams, the sixth preSident, as were eight other of America's twenty Quincys: IllinOis, Florida, Mississippi, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tennessee. (Although the town in

Tennessee was changed to Alamo.) The Quincys in California and

Oregon were named for Quincy , Illinois, through the influence of settlers from that state .

The Quincy in West Virginia (now called Dickinson) was named for John Quincy Dickinson. It is not known for whom the Quincys were named in Washington, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana and Minnesota. New Hampshire's Quincy, a section of Rumney, was named for Josiah Quincy, the 19th Century railroad . enthusiast and public servant.

The only Quincy definitely known to have been named for the Massa­chusetts town is Quincy, Wisconsin.

And the Bay State's Quincy came quite close to being named Hancock, for the then living patriot, instead of for Col. John Quincy, great-grandfather of John Quincy Adams.

As for the two Quincys in France and Quinsay in 17th Century China, further research is needed.

R.W.C. ~