History Of South Boston

Author : Charles Bancroft Gillespie
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781330530375
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (33 download)

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Download or read book Illustrated History of South Boston written by Charles Bancroft Gillespie and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Illustrated History of South Boston: Issued in Conjunction With and Under Auspices of the South Boston Citizens' Association, Comprising an Historic Record and Pictorial Description of the District, Past and Present From the counties of Devon, Dorset, and Somerset in England, came in 1630 a sturdy set of people to seek their future home on this side of the Atlantic. Long preparation had been made for this voyage, and after many discouragements, incidental to a journey of this kind in those early years of the history of this continent, their hopes were at last partly gratified, when they set sail on the 20th of March in the ship "Mary and John." They were nearly sixty days on the deep. The coast of Massachusetts came to view on May 29, 1630. By an agreement with the captain of the above vessel, their place of landing was to be on the banks of the Charles River, but doubtless, for some good reason, they touched the soil of the new country at Nantasket point. Three days after this, in coming up the old harbor, they sighted the peninsula, now known as South Boston, and pronounced it a good place for the pasturage of cattle. They erected, however, their tents and cabins in the locality now known as Dorchester, formerly called Mattapan, and recognized the adjoining peninsula as Mattapannock. Had Dorchester bay answered the commercial interests of these early settlers, there is good reason to believe, that Shawmut, the former name of Boston would never have superseded the other advantages of Dorchester. Soon after their arrival at this spot, not a few removed to the locality of Boston. Dorchester likewise owes a debt to South Boston, for it was the attractive pasturage of the latter, that induced these adventurers from the old country to make their first landing spot in this locality. They undoubtedly would soon have abandoned it, had not the advantages of the peninsular district appealed to them strongly in this direction. These settlers toiled bard and long to make the rough places habitable. Trees were felled, soil was broken, and the Indians took unkindly to their appearance. Their hardships were increased by unfordable tidewater rivers and wet meadows. Everything appeared to be against them. The lesson of their endurance looms up before us, as a precious legacy of their bravery, and their determination to succeed. When threatened with hunger, Captain Clap tells us, "When I could have meal and water and salt boiled together, it was so good, who could wish better? And it was not accounted a strange thing in these days to drink water, and to eat Samp or Hominy without Butter or Milk. Indeed it would have been a strange thing to see a piece of roast beef, mutton, or veal, though it was not long before there was roast goat." In 1631 there was not a loaf of bread in anybody's house but the governor's. But there was no despair. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.