History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

•624 HISTORV OF MIDDLESBA CUUXTV.
is perhajjs more indebted tliaii to any other indi-
vidual.
In 1870 the police department, which up to
this time had been of minor consideration, was re-
organized, and one captain, eight night -n-atchmen,
and four day patrolmen were in regular service.
In 1870 was printed the first paper, devoted ex-
clusively to the interests of Somerville. During a
few years previous The Charledown Chronicle had
given many of its columns to the news of its neigh-
bor ; but the rapid growth of the town served to
justify tJie establishment of a home-sheet, and the
first issue of The Somerville Journal appeared on
December 3. It has continued to be published
weekly with increashig success.
In 1870 the Lexington and Arlington Branch
railroad was constructed, and in December began
running trains through a jjart of the town hitherto
but sparsely populated. From this innovation
dates the growth of West Somerville ; and there
is now an extensive village, with its residences,
churches, school-houses, stores, and depots, where
in 1870 there were less than half a dozen cottages
surrounded by open fields.
For several years much dissatisfaction had been
manifested with the town system of government.
The town was becoming too large, her public busi-
ness too various, important, and laborious to be
wisely considered and impartially despatched in
town-meeting. Some citizens favored annexation
to Chavlestown and Boston; others urged the establishment
of a separate city government.
In ] 869 the town instructed her representatives
to favor annexation, and cast a small vote for a city
charter. During the following year the advocates
of the latter form of government gained ground,
and early in 1871 a petition was presented to the
legislature, and April 14 an act passed to establish
the city of Somerville. April 27, the act was ac-
cepted in town-meeting by a vote of three hundred
and thirty-six to one hundred and seventy. But
an undercurrent in favor of annexation existed for
some time after the aecej)tanec of the city charter.
Meetings were held in tlie various ward-rooms, on
the first Monday of Decenilni-, U^\ Ihc election of
such city officers as the law rei|iiiLcd. Georire O.
Brastow was elected mayor, and a cih council
for a formal inauguration of the city government.
Twenty-six persons who were legal voters at the
founding of the town occupied prominent seats
upon the platform. After the address of the mayor-
elect one hundred guns were fired. The day was
made one of public rejoicing, and closed with a
grand ball in the same hall.
Upon the new city council devolved an unusual
amount of labor, not only in the instituting of a
proper code of ordinances for the government of
their own and successive bodies, but in that of
despatching through untried channels a public
business much increased by the exigencies of a new
city and of a rapidly increasing population.
The old high-school building was fitted up for a
city hall. Charles E. Gilnian, who had held the
clerkship from the founding of the town, was elected
city clerk. Aaron Sargent was elected treasurer.
A seal was established, with the device of Washington
standing on Prospect Hill, grasping the
standard of the unfurled Union flag. In the back-
ground is a view of a part of Boston, and showing
the State House and Bunker Hill Monument. In
a narrow inner circle about this centre-piece are
the words, "Somerville, founded 1843, Estab-
lished a City 1872." In an outer circle is the
city's motto, "Municipal Freedom Gives National
Strength."
April -ri, an act to establish a police court was ap-
proved, and June 24, with apjirofiriate ceremonies,
the court was constituted. Isaac Story was ap-
pointed standing justice, and Lebbeus Stetson clerk.
From the founding of the town until 1854
criminal cases were taken to (Jharlestown and East
Cambridge for trial. From this latter date until
the incorporation of the city, almost without inter-
ruption, cases were tried by Francis Tufts, under
commission as justice of the peace, and sub-
sequiiilly under a law by which certain trial jus-
tices wvw Iririiniall} designated and commissioned,
who slioiild exercise authority and jurisdiction in
criminal cases in any town in the county where
no police court was established. The first trials
in Somerville, and those for many years, were
conducted in the office of Captain Tufts, on
the southern corner of Mcdford and Washington
streets. In 18G1 the court was moved to the
of two aldermen and four comnidii rdiiniiiincn building on the eastern corner of Prospect Street
was chosen from each of the fotii- wards with a and Somerville Avenue. After the city police
hi-h degree of unanimity.
court was constituted, the business of the depart-
On tlic Isl of .lamiarv, ]S7;J, the citizens asment was lield in a room at tlie city hall until the
sembled in Ih.' hall of t'he i'