History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

240 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
parties. In 1765 the town voted to buikl one
half tlie bridge called Keiirick's Bridge, the name
being due to the fact that the land of John Ken-
rick, one of the first settlers of Newton, was in
this immediate vicinity. The bridge on Bo\'lston
Street was built in coiniection with the Boston
and Worcester Turnpike in 1809. A bridge at
the N^orth Village was built by the Messrs. Bemis
between 1790 and 1796. The bridge on Needham
Avenue was built at the same time with that
highway, in 1876. The first bridge at Newton
Lower Falls was constructed previous to 11 IQ.
The spirit of enterprise on one hand, and the
desire for greater convenience on the other, which
characterized the people of Newton from the be-
ginning, and led them, in the earliest limes to seek
separation from Cambridge, continued to operate
at a later period. Several families at the south
part of the town, finding that they were nearer to
the meeting-house in Eoxbury than to their own,
petitioned to be set off to that town for the pur-
poses of public worship; and after much debate
and opposition their petition was granted. When
the meeting-house of the First Parish Church was
built in its present location, the decision and the
purchase of the land were preceded by long-con-
tinued and earnest inquiries as to llic geographical
centre of the town, the coiii]>;ir.ili\c distance from
that point of the various fauiilics in the outskirts,
the number of families attending worship in each
portion of the town, and the possibility of providing
for the equal rights and privileges of all. And
it was in consequence of thi;sc inquiries and the
result of them, that the town determined to pur-
chase of Mr. Nathaniel Parker, in 1716, the land
on which the church edifice has stood without
opposition from that date to the present time. In
the earliest days of Newton this land was part of
the estate of Mr. Jonathan Ilyde. The course of
events in later times has shown that the fathers
of tlie town, unwittingly, formed a wise decision
which entitles them to the gratitude of posterity.
In the period extending from 18:58 to 1815, the
question of the division of the town into two in-
dependent organizations was warmly contested.
Two or more lines of division were at dill'erent
times proposed, partly with reference to geographi-
cal extent, partly with reference to population and
Ihc location of the different villages in the town.
Owing to the peculiar configuration of Newton,
and the disposal of most of its villages at that
water privileges on Charles Eiver on the one hand,
and the conveniences created by railway stations
along the line of the Boston and Albany Railroad
on the other, many favored a division. Others
preferred to remain a united people, maintaining
that no line of division could be drawn which
would be alike equitable to the organizations
formed on each side of it. Some favored division,
but were not satisfied with any of the lines pro-
posed. Petitions and counter-petitions to the
town ))roved unavailing. Petitions were numer-
ously signed and presented to the legislature of
Massachusetts, advocated, contested, accepted, re-
jected. Among the champions in favor of division
who were most forward in debate was Mr. Seth
Davis, of West Newton ; on the other side were
Rev. Samuel Skinner, then residing at Oak Hill,
and the late Thomas Edmands, Esq., of Newton
Centre, all good and true men and upright citizens,
and conscientious in the advocacy of their several
views. The people were instructed by the earnest
and excited discussion. Sometimes a compromise
was made. A vote was passed to hold the town-
meetings half the time at the West Parish and half
the time at the Centre. Then, an arrangement was
entered into to use the hall of Fuller Academy, for
town purposes, alternately with a new town-hall to
be erected at the east part of the town and in
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conforuiity with this vote a hall was erected near
Newton Centre, on Centre Street, opposite the
building formerly used as the meeting-house of
the First Baptist Church. Under the ancient sj's-
tem of town governments and parishes in the
state of Massachusetts, when the parish and the
town were one, the meeting-house was the property
of the town, and the natural and rightlul place
for the town-meetings. But when the parish
and the town became separate organizations, and
the people were gathered into several parishes
in the same town, each erecting its own church
edifice, no parish W'as any longer under obligation
to supply a place for the town-meetings to the
entire town. The First Parish about this time
objected to the holding of the town-meetings in
their place of worship, which no longer belonged
to the town, but to a single society; and (his
action doubtless urged the citizens to a definitive
settlement of the difiiculty. About this time a
vote was passed to hold all the town-meetings at
West Newton. The town-hall that had been built
at Newton Centre was, after an interval, removed to
))eriad nearly on the circumference, because of the the northeast corner of Station and Centre streets,