History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

and used by the people as a village hall for lec-
tures and public meetings, receiving the name of
Lyceum Hall. It was afterwards removed again
to a point nearer the railroad station, and became
a stable, and was ultimately burned. When
the new church of the West Parish Society was
built on its present site, the old meeting-house, removed
a few feet westward, was remodelled as a
town-Jiall. After Newton became a city, the same
building, again altered and enlarged, and fitted to
the wants of the several municipal offices, was
transformed into the city hall. xVn increasing
population and new elements among the people, the
system of graded schools, an improved police, an
efficient fire department, pride in tlie history of the
town, and a more equable growth in all its parts,
exercised a unifying iuHucnce ; and the division
of the town has been not only no more mooted but
no more desired. And its present status as a
united city, as a culminating argument, has made
it finally and indisputably one.
THE NEWTON THEOLOGIC.VL INSTITUTION.
This institution was opened in 1825, under the
patronage of the Ba])tist denomination. Tlie land
in Newton Centre on which the buildings are sit-
uated was formerly the estate of i\Ir. John Peck.
Instruction in the institution was first given in a
house, since removed, on a lot next west of the
Harback House, near the junction of Ward Street
and Waverley Avenue. The first officer in the in-
stitution was Professor Irah Chase. The first class
which graduated consisted of but two members,
Eli B. Smith and John E. Weston. The territory
belonging to the institution at the beginning con-
sisted of about eighty acres of land, and was after-
wards enlarged by the purchase of forty additional,
bounded by Pound Lane (Cypress Street) on the
south, Centre Street on the west, and Station Street
on the north, including the present school-house
lot and the sife of many fine residences on streets
since laid out. The comely mansion-house which
stood on the crown of the hill was used in the
early days of the institution for a steward's resi-
dence and boarding-house for students. The attic
story, containing four dormitories for students,
used to be denominated "the crow's nest." A
stranger on a certain occasion, alluding to the
breezy situation of the building and the cupola on
it, perhaps also to the annual grist of young men
sent forth from its halls, pleasantly asked the Eev.
NEWTON. 241
Mr. Grafton, who was a man of wit, if that build-
ing was a mill. He replied, " Not exactly ; I never
heard of but one 2)eck being ground there." The
humor is explained by the fact that j\Ir. Peck ex-
pended a great deal of money in adorning and
developing the estate, from which he never received
any returns; and the neighbors used to call the
place Peck's Folly. Two houses for the use of
professors were built on the south side of Institu-
tion Avenue, about half-way from the summit of the
iiill to tlie Common ; they lia\e since been removed
to Cypress Street, and remodelled. A third house
for the sauie purpose was built near the west line
of the original estate, first occupied by Rev. B.
Sears, D. D., and now by Gustavus Forbes, Esq.
The following have been professors in the institu-
tion : Piev. Irah Chase, D. D.; Rev. Henry Jones
Ripley, D. D.; Rev. James Davis Knowles, A. M.;
Rev. Barnas Sears, D. D.; Rev, Horatio Balch
Hackett, D. D.; Rev. Robert Everett Pattison,
D. D.; Rev. Albert N. Arnold, D. D.; Rev. George
D. B. Pepper, D. D.; Rev. Alvah Hovey, D. D.;
Rev. Galusha Anderson, D. D.; Rev. Oakman S.
Stearns, D. D.; Rev. Heman Lincoln, D. D.; Rev.
Arthur S. Train, D. D.; Rev. Ezra Palmer Gould,
A. M.; Rev. Samuel Lunt Caldwell, D. D.; Rev.
E. B. Andrews, D. D.
At the close of half a century from the planting
of the institution, it appeared that the whole num- ,
ber of students in the institution, whose names are
recorded in the historical catalogue, was six hun-
dred and ninety-nine, of whom, at that date, one
hundred and seventy-two had died. Of the whole
number, about fifty-five have been, for a longer or
shorter time, presidents or professors of colleges or
theological seminaries, and fifty-four — more than
one for each year of the existence of the institu-
tion—had served as missionaries in foreign lands.
And of tliese, one. Rev. John Taylor Jones, trans-
lated the New Testament into the Siamese language;
another. Rev. Francis Mason, translated
the whole Bible into the Sgau Karen, and a third.
Rev. Durlin L. Brayton, the whole Bible into the
Pwo Karen, languages of Burmah ; a fourth. Rev.
Josiah Goddard, translated into Chinese the whole
'^e\y Testament and three books of the Pentateuch.
Many of the alumni have been widely known as
editors, writers, and translators, " and the volumes
which they have given to the public would make
a library worthy of any man's attention." Tlie
cash paid for the original estate was $4,250 ; ex-
pense for alterations and repairs, S 3,748.4 5 ; total.