1741.—Oldmixon, in his “History of the British Empire in America” (“The History of New England,” as a part of it is called), says, “Charlestown, the mother of Boston, is much more populous than Cambridge, and exceeds it much in respect of trade, being situated between two rivers, Mystic River and Charles River, and parted from Boston only by the latter, over which there is a ferry so well tended that a bridge would not be much more convenient, except in winter, when the ice will neither bear nor suffer a boat to move through it. Though the river is much broader about the town, it is not wider in the ferry passage than the Thames between London and Southwark. The profits of this ferry belong to Harvard College in Cambridge, and are considerable. The town is so large as to take up all the space between the two rivers.”
In 1763, April, the running of a stage-coach was commenced between Boston and Portsmouth, N.H., once a week,—out on Friday, and return on Tuesday. It is said, that, “owing to the trouble of ferrying the stage and horses over Charles River, they were kept at Charlestown, at the sign of the Three Cranes.” The practice with this, and very likely other stage-lines, probably continued until the bridge was built.
The memorable night, April 18, 1775, when Paul Revere crossed Charles River, near the ferry, is of course well remembered. During the occupation of Boston Harbor by the British navy, the boats of the ferry were drawn up alongside the men-of-war every night at nine o’clock, and there was no passing after that hour; but it seems that Revere kept a boat of his own at the north end, and employed two men to row him across, “a little to the eastward where the ‘Somerset’ man-of-war lay.” He landed at Charlestown below the ferry, and says, “I told them what was acting, and went to get me a horse,” and then pursued his momentous ride to Lexington.
Imagine the continuance of this ferry, as the usual means of crossing the river between Boston and Charlestown, for a period of more than one hundred and fifty years! and all this time probably without the use of sails, as the stream at this point was very narrow and the currents very strong, and certainly without the power of steam, now so generally applied to ferries all over the country. There was, no doubt, in the winter season, a good deal of passing on the ice. The Winnisimmet Ferry, for many years prior to the introduction of steam, was operated by the use of large sail-boats for foot-passengers only.
It is said that the Indian name of Charles River was Quimobequin, and that on Capt. Smith’s map of 1614, it is called Massachusetts; and Hutchinson says, “Prince Charles gave the name of Charles river to what had been before called Massachusetts river.” Smith himself says he called it Charles River; still Hutchinson may be right.
III.
THE BOSTON CORNFIELDS
It will hardly be realized at the present time that Boston, or the peninsula which originally comprised the town, was ever occupied by cornfields, or, as one may almost say, was a cornfield. If there were cornfields, as we assume there were, the curious thing about them is, that we know so little of them; for it can scarcely be said that they hold a place in history. There are, in fact, no definite statements about them; and a mystery seems to hang over them as to where they were, who owned them, who cultivated them, and what was done with the harvest. Were they private property or public property? We have not been able to find in contemporary or subsequent history any account of the Boston cornfields that will enable us with certainty to answer this question. The fair inference from statements made, however, is, that they were to some extent both public and private property. Perhaps the first allusion to them to be found in any record is that in 1632,—and there could have been no corn planted in Boston earlier than 1631, unless by Blackstone,—and this allusion is in the name of “Corne Hill.” In 1632, May 24, “it was agreed to build a fort in that part of Boston called Corne Hill,” meaning what thereafter was called Fort Hill; and one historical writer, quoting the record, says a fortification was begun on “the corn hill;” and that was probably the only Corn Hill at that time. The question naturally arises, Why was it called Corn Hill? and the almost necessary answer to the question is, Because it was where corn was grown.
There can be no doubt that it became necessary, as early as possible, for the settlers to seek means for their future subsistence. The stock and supply of provisions brought over were, no doubt, for a time and under certain regulations, a common stock; and possibly some of Gov. Winthrop’s party had supplies of their own in addition thereto. But, at all events, prudence and self-preservation required immediate attention to the cultivation of the soil and the raising of corn and other grains.
In 1628 (1629), before the arrival of Gov. Winthrop and his company at Charlestown, the place had been occupied by the Spragues, from Salem, under the direction of Mr. Graves, an agent of the company; and one of the first things they did was “to model and lay out the form of the town, with streets about the hill,” which was approved by Gov. Endicott. They next “jointly agreed and concluded that each inhabitant have a two acre lot to plant upon and all to fence in common.” The same year Mr. Graves wrote to England, “The increase of corne is here farre beyond expectation,” showing that it had been grown, and most probably in the common cornfield; for it is afterwards said that Thomas Walford “lived on the south end of the westermost hill of the East Field.” Another vote was passed the next year, 1630,—probably before the arrival of Gov. Winthrop,—that each person “dwelling within the neck, shall have two acres of land for a house plot, and two acres for every male that is able to plant.”
In the months of June and July, 1630, Gov. Winthrop and his party arrived at Charlestown, after a passage by some of the ships of seventeen or eighteen weeks, many of them sick of the scurvy. “The multitude set up cottages, booths and tents about the Town Hill;” and it is said “provisions were exceedingly wasted, and no supplies could now be expected by planting; besides, there was miserable damage and spoil of provisions at sea.” Many of the party died,—some two hundred before December,—and others started out for other locations; and finally in September, 1630, by the invitation of Mr. Blackstone, the larger part of Gov. Winthrop’s party crossed the river to Boston. This year there was a scarcity of corn, as will be seen by the following extract from Hutchinson’s history:—
“In August, 1724, John Quttamug, a Nipmug Indian, came to Boston, above 112 years of age. He affirmed that in 1630, upon a message that the English were in want of corn, soon after their arrival, he went to Boston with his father, and carried a bushel and a half of corn all the way on his back; that there was only one cellar began in town, and that somewhere near the Common.”
Wood, in speaking of Boston in 1639, says, “This place hath very good land, affording rich cornfields and fruitful gardens,” which, no doubt, were in existence years before he wrote his book. In 1635, it was voted, “Each able man is allowed two acres, and each able youth one acre to plant.” Provision of some sort on the subject was no doubt made before this time, and gradually reached the regulation here recorded. In 1633, great scarcity of corn is mentioned by Winthrop, as he says, “By reason of the spoil of our hogs, there being no acorns, yet the people lived well with fish and the fruit of their gardens.”
Almost as a natural consequence of what has now been said, in March, 1636, we find that provision was made “for having sufficient fences to the Cornfielde before the 14th of the next second month (April); that for every defective rod then found, five shillings penalty;” and it was further provided, “The field toward Rocksberry to be looked into by Jacob Elyott and Jonathan Negoose; the Fort Hill, by James Penn and Richard Gridley; the Mylne field, by John Button and Edward Bendall, and the New Field by John Audley and Thomas Faireweather.”
Thus it will be seen, if the rule adopted was carried out, that there were four or more large cornfields in Boston, and that the principal work of the people for a time was the raising of corn. At a later period parcels of corn were occasionally presented or sent to the governor by the Indians, who had their cornfields before the English people arrived. In fact, it is recorded in the next month after the arrival of Winthrop, that so much provision had been sold to the Indians for beaver, that food became scarce; and in October, 1630, a vessel was sent to the Narragansetts to trade, and brought home one hundred bushels of corn. In May, 1631, corn in Boston was