Annals and Reminiscences of Jamaica PlainWhitcomb, Harriet Manning
History
Annals and Reminiscences of Jamaica Plain
Whitcomb, Harriet Manning
Jamaica Plain (Boston, Mass.) -- History
He was an ardent loyalist and returned to England in 1776. As an example
of the change in public sentiment with the lapse of time, we learn that
this noted clergyman was a distiller as well, of whom a witty rhymster
wrote:--
"His Sunday aim is to reclaim
Those that in vice are sunk.
When Monday's come he selleth rum,
And gets them plaguey drunk."
This fine estate, extending then in the rear to the pond, was later owned
by Mr. Charles W. Greene a descendant of General Nathaniel Greene, of
revolutionary war fame. He enlarged the house and large wings, and
established a successful boarding and day school for lads fitting many of
them for college. Possibly some here may recall that in the school
building and the grounds the first Papanti taught some of the parents of
the rising generation to dance.
Among the men, since famous, who graduated from this school, are John
Lathrop Motley, the historian, and George William Curtis, the elegant
writer and able editor. The scenes and characters in Mr. Curtis's novel
"Trumps" were drawn from our village. Dr. Randall, of Roxbury, but
recently deceased, who bequeathed $70,000 to Harvard University, was
early a student at the school, and also the two brothers of Margaret
fuller, one of whom was afterwards a clergyman and a chaplain in the
Union Army. Mrs. Greene is referred to in an interesting article recently
written by a graduate of the school, as one "for whom no need of praise
could scarcely be excessive, as she was in sober truth a mother to every
lad committed to her care."
This property was next purchased by the brothers John and George
Williams, who resided there for several years.
On the opposite side of Centre Street, near Green Street, can to-day be
seen a two-story cottage, with pointed roofs and dormer windows which in
our day has been known as the Calvin Young house. This building with its
fresh paint and modern style can yet trace its history through a century
and a half of years. It was originally owned by Eleazer May who sold it
in 1740 to Benjamin Faneuil, nephew of Peter Faneuil, and in 1760 it
became the property of his brother-in-law Benjamin Pemberton.
We may readily believe that Peter Faneuil -- the Huguenot who in 1740
erected and gave to the town of Boston the noted hall which bears his
name -- often shared in the comforts and joys of this home of his niece,
Mrs. Susanna Pemberton. About the year 1802, this estate was purchased by
Dr. John C. Warren, son of Dr. John Warren, and nephew of General Joseph
Warren, hero of Bunker Hill, for a summer residence. He was one of the
most distinguished surgeons of our country, and for many years professor
of anatomy and surgery at the Harvard Medical School. His name was
honored in the recent ether celebration, he having performed the first
surgical operation under ether in 1846, and to his sanction it owed its
introduction throughout America and Europe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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