Showing posts with label Boston MA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boston MA. Show all posts
Friday, March 6, 2020
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Speidel's Boston MA (1863-1901)
Old Tavern Boston Boson Herald November 1901 Thanks Cheryl Follansbee for some added info! Have the PDF DOC on the Article if you want a copy please e-mail me
c1880s L. Speidel & Co. Boston, Mass. , Aqua Blob Top Breweriana Beer Bottle
Leopold's tavern was also referred to as 'Lagerbeer Saloon' according to a 1869 Boston Directory
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Five dollar bank note [Santa Claus bank note]
Engraved by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson, New York
Serial no. A 764 Haxby no. MA-246-C8a
Santa Claus Illustrations
A number of banks made use of Santa Claus illustrations in the 1850s the most logical being the St. Nicholas Bank of New York City. The Santa who graces this Howard Banking Company bill is descended from Sinter Klaas, a traditional figure brought by Dutch settlers to New York in the 17th century. He went through several significant metamorphoses in America, including features added by Washington Irving in his Knickerbocker History (1809) and the 1822 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("Twas the Night before Christmas"), attributed to Clement Moore.
"Santa Claus" Novelty Bank Note
"Santa Claus" Novelty Bank Note
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
William Lloyd Garrison Mob Boston 1835
From The Liberator Files 1831-1865
A Moment in Abolition History
A view by Horace SeldonOften history records an event which later is seen as a crucial “moment”, filled with meaning beyond the specific time, place and personalities involved. Such a time happened in London, in June, 1840. In another place I’ve written about the international significance of that time, when Garrison and other men from New England refused to participate in an international anti-slavery convention, because women delegates had been denied recognition. The effect on the movement became significant as a “watershed moment”.
In Boston, in 1835, a similarly significant “moment” occurred, once again with William Lloyd Garrison at the center, this time encountered by an angry “mob”. To tell the story I will rely on Garrison’s own words, on the historical accounts of Henry Mayer, and of Garrison’s sons, Wendell Phillips Garrison, and Francis Jackson Garrison. Any particular “moment” has a historical context, and the year 1835, is a time which Garrison himself called a “reign of terror”, threatening individual abolitionists and the movement itself. See Papers to Garrison Mob by Lyman
On the left is Wendell Phillips, son of the City of Boston’s first mayor, eloquent Abolition speaker; Garrison in the middle; on the right, George Thompson, English Abolition leader, close collaborator with Garrison. The Garrisons named two of their sons after Phillips and Thompson. Photo from Rare Book Room Boston Public Library
In New England in premonition of “terror”, late 1834 saw the destruction of Prudence Crandall’s school in Canterbury, Connecticut. She had opened her school for young black women, and that act enflamed a hatred that warned abolitionists of the depth of what previously Garrison had called the “mountains of ice” which needed to be melted. Then came the hot hatred of 1835. In Charleston, South Carolina, a post office was seized by a crowd of people who seized mailbags full of anti-slavery pamphlets; the fire which burned the literature became the scene of the hanging of effigies of Arthur Tappan and Garrison. In Nashville, Amos Dresser, a young man who had joined abolitionist protests at Lane Seminary, was publicly assailed and lashed twenty times in the public market.
In Canaan, New Hampshire, voters of the town assembled in town meeting, and acted to appoint a committee to oversee the physical removal from the town of Noyes Academy. That Academy had been started to educate young black children, under leadership which included one of Garrison’s devotees, David Child. Also in New Hampshire, in that same year, in a church in Northfield, George Storrs, was lifted from his knees while offering an anti-slavery prayer, and thrown out of the church! This “reign of terror” became very real for Boston, and for Garrison.
George Thompson, strong abolitionist leader from England, had come to the United States in the previous year, and was still touring the country in 1835. His speeches brought strength to the movement here, but he was under constant threat wherever he appeared. At an August speech in Boston abolitionist women had cleverly maneuvered him away from a threatening crowd. In the same month, a stone meant for Thompson, was thrown through a window, where he was speaking, in Lynn. Slaveholder hatred and fear took radical form. Subscriptions to a fund for procuring the heads of Garrison, Thompson, and Tappan, were invited to be made through a bookstore in Norfolk, Virginia. The Richmond Enquirer urged that these “wanton fanatics” be “put down forever”, and warned the North against interference with the right of slavery. Some Northern commercial interests, threatened with the loss of Southern patronage, or the destruction of Southern branches, responded by bringing pressure against abolitionists in Boston.
One Boston newspaper, the Commercial Gazette, responded to an announcement of an August 14 annual meeting of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, and predicted resistance. “This resistance will not come from a rabble, but from men of property and standing, who have a large interest at stake in this community…” The paper warned ladies to keep away, and threatened that if Thompson were to appear, he would be lynched.
Faneuil Hall was denied for abolitionist meetings, but on August 21, the same Hall was filled with those who wanted to “protect the rights of the South”. Harrison Gray Otis, retired Mayor, was a featured organizer-speaker for that crowded meeting. Otis spoke of the intent of abolitionists to create auxiliary societies in “every state and municipality”, asserting that this proved them to be “imminently dangerous” and “hostile to the spirit and letter of the constitution”. In the same period Samuel May had a speech broken up in Haverhill, and John Greenleaf Whittier was pelted with eggs in Concord. The Garrison family was frightened by a gallows which was planted on the doorstep of their home, on Brighton Street.
The postponed meeting of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, was announced for three o-clock on Wednesday afternoon, October 21st. It was to be held at 46 Washington Street, in a hall at the Anti-Slavery office. The Commercial Gazette reported on the indignation among business men who thought that “women ought to be engaged in some better business than that of stirring up strife between the South and the North on this matter of slavery… they ought to be at home, attending to their domestic concerns …”
Believing that George Thompson was to speak, anti-abolition forces distributed handbills which urged people to “snake out” Thompson, and offered a one hundred dollar prize for the first to lay violent hands on him. It hoped that Thompson would “be brought to the tar-kettle before dark”. These warnings were widely distributed to insurance offices, hotels, reading rooms, from State Street to the North end. Fearful merchants petitioned Mayor Lyman to prevent the meeting. Photo from Caren Collection
On the day of the meeting, a crowd had gathered along Washington Street, and in the vicinity of City Hall. Hisses, sarcastic cheers, racial epithets were accompanied by demands for “Thompson”. The crowd was assured by the Mayor, who had arrived, that Thompson was not in the building. Word spread soon that Garrison was there. He had come from his home on Brighton Street, where he had hosted a dinner for John Vashon, a leader of the Pittsburgh colored community; he was accompanied by Charles Burleigh, abolitionist from Connecticut. Garrison, after consulting with the women leaders of the meeting, retired into the Anti-Slavery office, separated from the gathering by a partition. (See Letters to John Vashon--Garrison)
The birth of John Bathan Vashon in 1792 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black seaman, businessman and abolitionist.
The President of the Society, Mary Parker, proceeded with the business of the meeting, with the customary prayers and reading of Scripture. She was interrupted by the Mayor bursting into the room, requesting that the ladies abandon the meeting and go home. A conference between Parker, Maria Chapman, and the Mayor resulted in the decision by the ladies to adjourn the meeting and reconvene at the Chapman home at 11 West Street.
The story then becomes one of a remarkably dignified walk by the women, black and white, arm in arm, six blocks down Washington Street, through an angry mob, still resolute in determination to continue their meeting. It is also the story of a portion of the mob gaining access to the building, grabbing Garrison, and his final release from the crowd by “two burly Irishmen not know as abolitionists”. He was then rushed by constables, into a carriage, and taken to the Leveret Street jail for safety overnight. John Vashon visited Garrison the next morning, where he was in prison, and gave him a hat to replace the one which had been “cut in pieces by the knives of men of propoerty and standing”.
History most often gives emphasis to the threat to Garrison, who was indeed nearly lynched, and could have been killed by some in the mob. Here I want to lift up the courage of the women who walked through that mob, undeterred in the immediate purpose of their meeting, or the overarching purpose of abolition. Here also it is appropriate to some who were present that day who were led to become dedicated abolitionists.
Young Wendell Phillips, son of Boston‘s first Mayor, dated his “conversion” to the abolitionist cause from the day when he witnessed the mob. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, just returned from medical training in Europe, knowing nothing of Garrison, was also infuriated by the mob’s action against Garrison. He vowed himself an abolitioinst from that moment, and shortly after subscribed to Garrison’s Liberator.
Edmund Quincy, son of the second Mayor, was alerted toward the rights of abolition. His father, Josiah Quincy, then President of the City Council, saw the mob from his office at 27 State Street, rushed to Garrison’s side until he was placed in the carriage and driven off, . Rev. James E. Crawford, later of Nantucket, was walking on State Street and encountered the riotous mob, and “his heart and soul became fully dedicated to the cause of immediate emancipation. Thirty years later, William H. Logan told of how, soon after the mob had left, he had received from Sheriff Parkman, remnants of a pair of pantaloons which had been torn from Garrison. At that same 1855 remembrance of the occasion, William C. Nell reported that a Boston merchant, David Tilden, Esq., “immediately became a subscriber to the Liberator and continued a reader until his death. Reports of several others of the affect of being witness may be suspect, but the affect on Harriett Martineau was widely reported. Martineau, an English teacher, professor, liberator, had been in the country for months, conducting what might be termed a sociological study of slavery. She had interviewed slave owners and abolitionists alike, adhering to her academic style for the most part. On the historic day, she was on her way from Salem to Providence, passing through Boston as the crowd was gathering. Friends, seeing the well-dressed crowd, and knowing it was close to a Post Office, informed her that the crowd was assembled because it was a “busy foreign-post day”. In Providence she heard the factual account. She volunteered her interest and within a few weeks she was a speaker at the Society. In December she visited Garrison in Boston, and became a worthy supporter.
This date, October 21, 1835 is worthy of celebration as a “moment” of gathering strength for the Abolition Movement in the United States. Five years later, in London, came a similarly significant “moment” of strength for abolitionists in the United Kingdom. In that “moment”, a major issue revolved around what some have called the “woman” question.
Public Sentiment at the North Date: Saturday, March 7, 1835 Liberator (Boston, MA)
Other Reads
- Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 2
- (1882)
- A House Dividing Against Itself, 1836-1840 By William Lloyd Garrison
- Mayors of Boston: An Illustrated Epitome of who the Mayors Have Been and what They Have Done
- The Life and Times of Wendell Phillips by George Lowell
- "Anti-Slavery Excitement" in Boston
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Davenport Family Tavern & Inns
From research I have found my Davenport line had a common trend-owning taverns, inns, and other entrepreneurial enterprises. William owned the Wolfe, or Davenport's Inn in Newbury (later operated by his two sons Anthony and Moses) and step brother John Davenport two taverns in Portsmouth, NH --The Arks Inn and The Mason's Arms.
But, before them father James had a few taverns in Boston, MA. James Davenport owned the Globe Tavern, A Bunch of Grapes, and Kings Head Inn in Boston. At the Essex Institute, in Salem, is a portion of the sign which formerly hung at the " Bunch of Grapes," on State street, Boston, a famous coaching station in the days of the Boston and Providence stages. It is made of clay, moulded and baked, and is said to have been brought from England." He was not the only owner it changed hands before.
On the occasion of the victory of Stark, at Bennington, there was a grand celebration at the " Bunch of Grapes," in Boston. Early in the evening there began to arrive great numbers of the principal men in the town, as well as strangers, who happened to be "within the gates of the city" at this time. " In the street were two brass field-pieces, with a detachment of Colonel Craft's regiment." On the balcony of the town house all of the drummers and fifers in one of the regiments then in the town were posted. At a given signal the artillery commenced a salute of thirteen guns. After this the enthusiastic party assembled in the house, drank a series of toasts, following every one of which there was a salute of three guns and a shower of rockets. "About nine o'clock two barrels of grog were brought out into the street for the people that had collected there. It was all conducted with the greatest propriety, and by ten o'clock every man was at his home." Edward Field "The colonial tavern; a glimpse of New England town life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries." From the Boston Gazette December 24, 1754
He also owned the Ebenezer Hancock House which is now a law office- the story on how it was saved by the "wrecking ball" at Swartz Law
James Davenport had 22 children and 3 wives. He was the son of Ebenezer Davenport and Dorcas Andrews. James was born in Dorchester, March 1, 1693. From the "History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, Now Called the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. 1637-1888, Volume 1" with works cited below: He married, (1) Sept. 30, 1715, Grace Tileston, of Dorchester. She died Oct. 24, 1721, aged twenty-seven years, and he married, (2) May 3, 1722, Sarah, born July 9, 1699, daughter of Josiah and Abigal Folger (sister of Benjamin Franklin). She died May 23, 1731, aged thirty-two years. He married, (3) Nov. 12, 1731, Mary Walker, of Portsmouth daughter of George Walker and Rebecca Addington Davenport. James was a constable of Boston in 1725, and May 25, 1735, gave ten pounds toward the erection of the new workhouse.
In 1722, Dec. 31, he and his father-in-law, Josiah Franklin, became sureties in the sum of one hundred pounds for Brie Blare, tailor, from Martha's Vineyard, who desired to settle in Boston. In 1748, Michael Lowell advertised that his place of business was "at the corner-shop leading to Mr. James Davenports [1727] hardtack bake-house, near the sign of the Cornfields." Not long after this, Mr. Davenport (1727) changed or enlarged his business, for he appears as an innholder.
On the corner of Fleet and Ship, now North, streets, Major Savage (1637) had a house and garden. He wharfed out in front in 1643. This house, or another house on the same spot, became King's Head Tavern. It was burned down in 1691, but rebuilt. The Memorial History of Boston, Vol. II, p. ix, says, "In 1754 Davenport [1727], who had kept the Globe Tavern, petitioned to keep the Bunch of Grapes, formerly known as Castle Tavern, near Scarlets Wharf." Mr. Drake says that James Davenport (1727) kept the King's Head Tavern in 1755, and his widow in 1758. He certainly kept a public-house in 1757, for we learn from the selectmen's minutes, under date of Dec. 5, 1757, that Robert Stone, innholder, upon whom five British soldiers had been "quartered and billeted," complained to the selectmen that he had more than his share; whereupon the selectmen "removed, from his house to James Davenports [1727] at North End," three men.
King's Head Tavern, North and Lewis (or Fleet) streets. Erected in 1691, This etching was drawn from an 1855 photograph. The King's Head continued a large and flourishing hostelry until the beginning of the Revolution, when it was converted into barracks for the marines, and then taken down for fuel. Joseph Austin bought the site, and established there his large bakery. James Davenport (1727) was appointed coroner for Suffolk County, Jan. 7, 174o-1, and was first sergeant of the Artillery Company in 1732.
Administration on his estate was granted June 13, 1759. Boston Records; Davenport Genealogy; New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1879, pp. 25-34; Drake's Old Landmarks, p. 168; Porter's Rambles in Old Boston, p. 286.
William was his first son of James and Grace Tileston born Oct. 19, 1717 and settled in Newburyport. He married Sarah, daughter of Moses Gerrish and Mary Noyes of Newburyport. He operated the original Wolfe from his home.
From "History of Newburyport, Mass., 1764-1905" Currier, John J.
Dr. Henry Coit Perkins, son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Storey) Perkins, was born in the Wolfe tavern on State street, Newburyport, November 13, 1804. He graduated at Harvard in 1824, and receiv'ed the degree of M. D. in August, 1827. On the third day of September following" he began the practice of medicine in Newburyport, and married, October 30, 1828, Harriet, daughter of John Davenport.
The Union Fire Society was organized February 28, 1783. Benjamin Frothingham, Edward Toppan, William Cross, Daniel Balch, jr., Abraham Jackson, Daniel Cofifin, Richard Pike and other well-known citizens of Newburyport were members of this association. Meetings were held usually at Wolfe Tavern.
The first meeting of the stockholders of the company was held at the house of Mr. Moses Davenport, " Wolfe Tavern," on the seventeenth day of July for the election of officers.
The taverns and inns of the were the original business Exchanges; they combined the Counting House, the Exchange-office, the Reading-room, and the Bank : each represented a locality according to Alice Morse Earle in 'Stage-coach and Tavern Days' the aristocratic eastern towns, Newburyport and Portsmouth, were represented by ship owners and ship builders, merchants of the first class."
John Davenport was born Aug. 4, 1752 and is son of James and his third wife Mary walker. He moved to Portsmouth, NH when he was very young. He lived there until his death March 28, 1842. He married first, Elizabeth Hull, of Portsmouth; m. second, widow Elizabeth Welch Pendexter, June 21, 1780; m. third, Sally Bradley, of Haverhill, MA. The intermarriages in the family here
/THOMAS DAVENPORT b: ABT 1640
/EBENEZER DAVENPORT b: 1661 d: 1738
/JAMES DAVENPORT b: 01 MAR 1693 d: BEF 02 NOV 1758
| \DORCAS ANDREWS b: ABT 1660
/JOHN DAVENPORT b: 04 AUG 1752 d: 20 MAR 1842
| | /GEORGE WALKER b: ABT 1670
| \MARY WALKER b: BET 1707 AND 1715 d: BET 18 JAN 1759 AND 04 AUG 1762
| | /RICHARD DAVENPORT b: ABT 1620
| | /ELEAZER DAVENPORT b: ABT 1640 d: 1678
| | | \REBECCA ADDINGTON b: 1649
| \REBECCA DAVENPORT b: 1676 d: 1718
PAMELA WALKER DAVENPORT b: ABT 1790
\ELIZABETH PENDEXTER OR WELCH b: ABT 1754 d: 03 FEB 1801
C S Brewesters "Rambles About Portsmouth"
On the opposite side of Ark Lane, on the corner of State street, stood the Ark Tavern, kept by John Davenport. It was originally a two-story single house, fronting on State street. Mr. Davenport was a silver smith and buckle maker, and had removed to Portsmouth from Boston, where he was born. He had occupied the building on the corner of Fleet and Congress streets, now owned by the Mechanic Association, and had served the town as constable several years. He made several additions to the house in State street, one of which, one-story high, covered a small gore of land on the eastern end, about eight feet in width at the widest end, in which he himself worked at his trade. A connection of Mr. Davenport's wife, (Mr. Welch,) having at Lynn acquired a knowledge of the ladies' cloth slipper manufacture, he with him commenced the making of them in copartnership; at the same time continuing the buckle making business, which soon afterwards became unprofitable by the introduction of shoe strings. Mr. Davenport then opened his premises as a public house, with the sign of Noah's Ark, and denominated his house the "Ark Tavern,"
exhibiting in front a fanciful sign of the picture of the Ark. Mr. Davenport's wife died in this house while the Superior Court was sitting in Portsmouth, in the month of February, and as his house was crowded with boarders, which made her burial very inconvenient, she was kept until the court closed its business about three weeks after. The artist who painted Mr. Davenport's sign, went by the name of James Still. His proper name was James Ford. Under his real name he had been guiltyof an offence which cost him a part of his ears. Although he dropped the Ford he did the long hair over his ears, yet as his baptismal name was not changed it remained, he said, James Still. Thus in the exercise of his good talent as a delimeator and painter he continued till the time of his death under the name of James Still.
Wife of John Davenport
"LADY DAVENPORT" (circa 1800) As affable lady with ready smile is seen at three-quarters length, standing beside a vase of tulips, for one of which she reaches; she clasps the stem lightly, her right forearm being extended across her body to attain the flower. Figure slightly to right, she faces front, before a conventional background of gray, brown and olive notes. She has florid cheeks and dark brown hair, and wears a low-cut gown of gray-brown satin, generously adorned with silver fringe and with frills and flounces; flowing sleeves with lace, and lace-edged corsage.
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