Suffolk County Massachusetts, 1890
Suffolk County lies on the northern part of Massachusetts Bay, being the eastern middle section of the State. It includes the cities of Boston and Chelsea and the towns of Revere and Winthrop, the first mentioned city being the capital of the county and of the State. It is the largest portion of the county as to territory, and its treasurer and auditor fulfil the same offices for the county, while its board of aldermen are the county commissioners, though Revere and Winthrop are placed in the jurisdiction of the commissioners of Middlesex County. Yet all the county expenses are paid by the city of Boston.
The county is in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 13th Congressional districts; in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Councillor districts; and together with Ward Three of Cambridge, has 9 State senators, and, of itself, has 52 representatives in the General Court.
At the first United States census in 1790 Suffolk County had a population of 18,792; in 1869, it had 192,700; in 1865, 208, 212; in 1870, 279,802; in 1875, 364,886; in 1880 387,927; and in 1885, it was 421,109; the legal voters then numbering 95,154.
The original division of the Massachusetts Bay Colony * into counties was on May 19, 1643; when Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk and Norfolk were formed, all being named from shires or counties, of the same name in England. Suffolk, as then constituted, contained Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham and Nantasket (Hull). The county contains at present (as before stated) only the cities of Boston and Chelsea and the towns of Revere and Winthrop; but Boston the court town now embraces South Boston, East Boston, Roxbury, Boston Highlands, West Roxbury, Dorchester, Brighton and Charlestown.
The greatest length of the county is northeast and southwest about 16 miles; and the greatest width of land surface some 8 1/3 miles; or, including harbor and islands, upwards of 13 miles. The area of the land surface is 44 sq. miles, about 28,160 acres. There are 24,235 acres of assessed land It has above 650 acres of forest, the largest part of which is in public parks The highest eminence is Bellevue Hill in the West Roxbury district, whose altitude is 334 feet. Other elevations are Pomeroy Hill in the Brighton district, Mount Washington in South Boston, Orient Heights in East Boston, Powder-Horn Hill in Chelsea, Winthrop Head, Mount Bowdoin in the Dorchester district, Bunker Hill in the Charlestown district, and Beacon Hill, marking nearly the corporate centre of Boston and of the county. The Charles and the Mystic rivers flow through its territory to the sea, while the Neponset River forms its boundary line on the southeast. The county also includes Boston Harbor and Revere Beach. The geological formation is the St. John's group, sienite and trap, with an area of conglomerate (Roxbury pudding-stone) in the southern section, and ledges of slate in the harbor. Beds of clay and peat are found in several localities. The north eastern part is marshy, but the surface deposit in the higher portions is chiefly drift.
[new court house]
The number of farms in the county is 204, embracing about 4,500 acres. The green-house product shows the most marked variation from other counties, being in 1885, 148,767. The total product was $608,985. There were 5,472 manufacturing establishments, producing a great variety of goods; whose aggregate value is given in the last census report as $149,281,727. There is also a considerable fishery interest, whose product, in 1885, was valued at $466,074. There were engaged in this industry 51 schooners, 1 brig, 317 dories, and 36 seine boats. The merchant marine consisted of 67 barks, 19 barkentines, 20 brigs, 201 schooners, 33 ships, 12 sloops, 130 steam-vessels. These had a total tonnage of 811,617. The number of assessed dwelling-houses was 54,433. The valuation of the county in 1888 was $791,944,763.
The public schools were provided for in 182 buildings (besides several hired), valued, with appurtenances, at $8,878,019. There are 89 private schools, including one university, two colleges, eleven schools of the grade of academies, and twenty-three professional schools, having 110 buildings, valued with the school property at $2,956,518. There were, in 1885, 90 newspapers and journals (11 daily, 2 semi-weekly, 75 weekly, 2 bi-weekly), and 81 journals and magazines (66 monthly, 13 quarterly, and 2 annual). The number of libraries (more or less public) was 329, having 1,276,411 volumes. Of these, 139 were secular, having 1,083,957 volumes; and 199 were religious (church and Sunday-school and association) having 192,454 volumes. The churches in the county were 220 in number.
The county of Suffolk was more fortunate than others in the Indian troubles, being surrounded by a broad belt of settlements, so that no savage incursion ever distressed its borders. Its men and money, however, were furnished in due proportion for the public good. The events of the Revolution in this county, and most other occurrences, are perhaps sufficiently detailed in the article on Boston and in that under the head of "Civil History" in the first part of this volume. There remain to be mentioned the several destructive fires with which the chief town has been visited, the depressing effects of which were felt even beyond the limits of the county.
The first fire of much magnitude occurred at the early date of March 16, 1631, and though the absolute loss was not large, it was a serious set-back in the progress of the settlement. The next was in the autumn of 1675, when forty-five dwellings, a meeting-house, and many other buildings were consumed. There was not a fire-engine in Boston up to this time; but this disaster induced the authorities to procure one from England. It did not arrive until the spring of 1679, in time for use in the great fire which occurred in August following. This conflagration laid waste the commercial part of the town, in the vicinity of the dock; consuming vessels, warehouses, and dwellings, and causing a loss of £200,000. This fire was believed to have been the work of an incendiary. The procuring of more engines and the starting of a rudely organized fire department were among the immediate results of this fire. Again, in October, 1711, another scourge of fire destroyed about 100 dwelling-houses, rendering 110 families homeless. Many stores stocked with goods, the town-house, and the meeting-house of the first church, were consumed. The space from School Street to Dock Square was swept clean. The colony held a general fast on account of this affliction, taking up contributors for the sufferers to the amount of about £700. In 1760 another great fire visited Boston. It commenced on Washington Street, not far from Water Street, burning east between State and Milk Streets to Long Wharf, clearing what was then a large section of the town. Three hundred and forty-nine buildings dwelling-houses, stores, and mechanics' shops were destroyed, and about one thousand people bereft of their homes, The loss was estimated at £500,000. New York, Pennsylvania, and Nova Scotia promptly sent relief; a London merchant gave £100; and George Whitefield collected and sent £250. After this fire a larger proportion of the new buildings were of brick. The last great catastrophe of this kind, and far the most disastrous we have to record, is the great fire of November 9, 1872. It consumed the buildings chiefly business houses and shops, and constructed of brickextending from near the corner of Milk and Washington Streets southeast and covering 63 acres, to a mass of smouldering ruins. The value of the property consumed was about $100,000,000.
[view of the ruins, Boston Fire, from Summer Street.]
The post-office for the Bay Colony was virtually established in Boston in November, 1639; when the house of Richard Fairbanks was fixed upon as the place where all letters from foreign countries should be sent for delivery.
The place of holding the Suffolk County courts in the earlier period is obscure. Possibly they may have been held in the Province House, or in some tavern. It is probable that the town-house of Boston was used for the purpose after one was built, which was not until later than 1657. The first building was of wood, and was burned in the great fire of 1711. A new one of brick was erected the next year; and it is recorded that, in 1733, the courts were still held in the "very handsome town-house." This, too, was burned in 1747. The building fronting on Washington Street, at the junction of State and Court (formerly King and Queen streets), and well known as the Old State House, was erected in 1748, as a town-house on the site of the former ones. Its east end, roof, and interior have at various times been changed from the original form. Drake (in his "History of Boston") says : "In this building were accommodated the General Court of the Commonwealth, clerks of the Supreme Judicial Court, and Court of Common Pleas." Early in 1769 a new stone court-house on Queen (Court) Street was completed, in which the first session was held in April, 1769. The committee of construction reported in 1770 that the new building cost £2373 17s. 10¾d. lawful money. The committee received in addition the sum of £45 for their services. A stone jail had been begun near by in 1766 and was completed in the following year, at a cost of £3,466 13s. 9½d.
The lower floor of the new court-house (called also the town-house) was used for a Probate Office, and a room adjoining it was prepared later for the grand jury. This floor was used later for United States district offices, and by a provident association.
In 1810 the county courts were removed to a new, or second and newer, court-house on School Street, where they remained until 1841, and were then removed to the present stone court-house on State Street. This edifice was commenced in 1836, and the cost when completed was $98,817.16. Willard was the designer. It is a gloomy granite structure presenting a Doric front with ponderous fluted columns of granite weighing 25 tons each. There was a similar portico at the rear, removed later to make room for an extension of the main building. This edifice is the least adapted to the comfort and convenience of the court, counsel, parties and witnesses of any court-house in the Commonwealth. In the basement are the tombs. It was here that the Anthony Burns riot occurred, May, 1854. In 1888 a new county court-house and jail were commenced on Pemberton Square, a description of which may be found in the article on Boston.
*For statement of the form and changes of the government of the Massachusetts Colony, consult the article entitled " Civil History," in the section devoted to the State, in the first part of this volume.
pp. 89-94 in Nason and Varney's Massachusetts Gazetteer, 1890
Gazetteer