History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

238 HISTOBY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
portaiit one at an early period. Many stage-
coaches, passing regularly through the village from
towns, farther west, gave it prestige. When the
Boston and Worcester Railroad was constructed,
its station at West Newton gave the citizens of all
the vicinity greater facility of going back and forth
to the metropolis, and very soon suggested the possi-
bility of doing business in the city, and at the same
time enjoying the repose and the healthful atmos-
phere of the country. The Fuller Academy, the
first normal school, the model school, and the fact
that the town-meetings were held at West Newton
alternately with the meetings at Newton C-'entre,
contributed still more to the growth of the village.
The iirst meetings held by Unitarians in West
Newton took place in the summer of 184-4 in the
hall of the hotel, but were discontinued in August.
They were revived again in 1847, and held in the
village hall. Among the prominent early members
were William Parker, Esq., and Hon. Horace
Mann. Eev. Arthur B. Fuller spent tln-ee months
in West Newton in 1847-48, and aided in
gathering the society. The first pastor was Rev.
William Orne White, who was ordained in the village
hall November 18, 1848. The first communion
service was held January 7, 1849. After two
years Mr. White resigned his office and removed to
Keene, N. H., where he was pastor twenty-seven
years. Rev. William H. Knapp was pastor from
1851 to 185.3, and the next year Rev. G. E. Hodges
engaged to preach on Sabbath afternoons at West
Newton, and Sabbath forenoons in Watertown.
Rev. Washington Gilbert followed for two years,
Rev. Joseph A. Allen for two years. Rev. W. H. Sa-
vary for three years, John G. Zacchos for two years,
and later. Rev. Francis Tifl'any. After worshi])ping
in the village hall thirteen years, tlic prcsciit eliurch
edifice was built, and dedicatcil Xdvcinlicr I 1, |S(iO.
The BcqilUl Ckinrh at \V.si Xcwl.m was ,,igan-
ized in Newtonville, December 1, 1853, and iieJd
meetings in Tremont Hall several years. The first
pastor was Rev. Joseph M. Graves; the second.
Rev. B. A. Edwards. In March, 18G0, their un-
finislied Jiouse of worship, built of brick, now the
Methodist Gliurch of Newtonville, was sold on
account of embarrassments, and the meetings were
suspended till June, 1800, when the church was
reorganized at West Newton, services being held in
the village hall, and the pulpit supplied by students
of the Tlu'oiogical Institution. Tlie church edifice,
near Lincoln Bark, was dedicated in August, 1871.
The pastors since the reorganizalioi\ liave been Rev.
Ralph Bowles, 1866-1868; Rev. R. S. James,
1869 - 1870 ;
Rev. W. M. Lisle, formerly mission-
ary to Siam, 1870-1875; Rev. T. B. Holland,
1875 - 1878. Mr. Holland died hi office.
In 1874- about twenty colored persons in West
Newton formed a church, denominated the Myrtle
Ba])tist Ghurch. They erected a small chapel
(dedicated in June, 1875), and soon increased in
number to one hundred and eighteen. Rev. Edmund
Kelly was pastor one year.
Father Michael Dolan took charge of a congregation
of about two hundred persons of the Roman
Gatholic persuasion in Boyden Hall, Newton Lower
Falls, and with these persons in 1874-75, at a
cost of about S 15,000, he built a church on Wash-
ington Street, now St. Bernard's GatJiolic Church,
West Newton, near Lincoln Park.
The village of Auburndale originated in a sug-
gestion of the Rev. Dr. Lyman Gilbert to the late
Rev. G. D. Pigeon (graduated at Harvard University,
1818, died r87£). While Newtonville was only a
flag-station on the Boston and Worcester Railroad,
and its growth was all in the future, Dr. Gilbert
casually remarked to Mr. Pigeon that he anticipated
that it would come to be a ])lace of importance,
and that money invested in land at that locality
would prove a success. He believed that if a small
number of persons, from five to eight, would pur-
chase season-tickets between that point and Boston,
with the intention' of making daily trips to the city,
the railroad corporation would make it a regular
stopping-place, and thus it would soon become the
nucleus of a considerable village. Mr. Pigeon, a
descendant of John Pigeon, whose name became
famous at the beginning of the Revolutionary War
as the stanch patriot who gave two field-pieces to
the town of Newton, said to himself, "And why
not also a sinnlar station on the same conditions
a mile or two farther westward ? " Aihere the home
of his ancestors was still standing. Acting on the
thought, his plan was formed, and Auburndale be-
gan to be. The first important enterprise in that
part of the town was the erection of the Lasell
Female Seminary. Numerous residents soon be-
gan to come in.
T/ie Congregational Church, in Auburndale, was
organized November 1 !, 1850, with thirty-three
members. Tlic hall of the Lasell Seminary was
jilaced at the disposal of tlic church for two years
after its organization, and the religious services were
conducted in turn by several resident ministers,
Rev. Sewall Harding, Rev. J. E. Woodbridge, and
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