Reading Its Representative Business Men And Its Points Of Interest PDF Download

Excerpt from Somerville Its Representative Business Men and Its Points of Interest Soon afterwards lie was followed by others, among them the highly educated ami accomplished John Winthrop, the first Governor of the Colony; a bronze statue of him stands in Seollay square, Boston. Mis farm was at Ten Hills, overlooking Mystic river. Gradually the adventurous settlers were scattered thoroughout the region, where the conditions of soil and location promised a profitable return for the toil expended. The peaceful and powerful intlnenceof Massasoit and his true friendship for the white settlers, gave to them the opportunity t thoroughly strengthen their hold upon this ami other settlements, so that when King Philip succeeded his father Massasoit, and the stirring and blood-curdling events that subsequently and successively burst upon all the colonics, they were able to do valiant service in the protection of home, wife, ehildren and their combined colonial interests. The careful reader of King Philip's war in ll»7.r>-7t3; King William's war from l(89 to 1007; Queen Anne's war from 1702 to 1713: King George's war, 174 1 to 1743, and the French and Indian war from 1754 to 1703, can form some ideas of what those pioneer were called to do and suffer; historians have garnered every incident possible in their lives of hardship and suffering, while eloquence has again and again exhausted its captivating power in presenting to onr imagination the grand heroism that illuminated their self-sacrificing devotion to political and religions freedom and to the land of their adoption. They established their homes amid the wild trackless forests and fields of a new and unexplored country, surrounded by wild beasts and a race of savages more dangerous than the former; they exterminated the one and subdued the other: they created a community of kindred spirits, inaugurated the principle of self-government-a genu of political principle destined to establish the most powerful nation in the world, and gradually but ultimately, through centuries of influence, to modify if not mould the political character of all nations. Both the native and adopted citizen of Somerville is proud of the fact that her hills and meadows became historic as the places where wore enacted some of the exciting events that contributed to the success of the combined colonial effort against the tyrannical rule of the mother country, and that citizens, some of whom attained most prominent distinction, honorably bore their part in its grand consummation. THE DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION. From all the facts now attainable, it is estimated that at the commencement, of the Revolutionary war, the part of Charlestown which now comprises Somerville could not have contained more than two hundred and fifty population, and less than forty houses, and these scattered from Charlestown Neck to Quarry Hill: the Highlands were largely pasture lands interspersed with heavy growth of woods. Mt. Benedict was, however, supposed to he under cultivation, for it was called u Ploughed Hill." Although few in number, the citizens of this locality were thoroughly in active sympathy with tho patriots and ready to do their part in the exciting events so soon to follow, and which were destined to make their highways and hill tops grandly historic with the more important events of Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill and Siege of Boston. Oue of the first acts of British hostility was the capture of the powder house with its large stock of powder ou Quarry Hill in the northeastern part of tin* town, as narrated elsewhere in these pages. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com