EARLY DAYS IN AUBURN DALE
THE RAILROAD
The days before the railroad, and the days after, what a
contrast. Two different worlds, indeed, in Auburndale as elsewhere.
And the first trains! Can we, hardened to wonders imagine the excitement
they produced! From a history of the Boston & Worcester Railroad
by C. F. Adams, Smith Quotes, "It was upon the Worcester road, and towards
the latter part of March, 1834, that the first locomotive ever used in
Massachusetts was set in motion. * * * 'Placed upon the track, its driver,
who came with it from England, stepped upon the platform with almost the
airs of a juggler, or a professor of chemistry, placed his hand upon the
lever, and with a slight move of it, the engine started at a speed worthy
of the companion of the "Rocket" amid the cheers of the multitude.
It gave me such a shock, that my hair seemed to start from the roots, rather
than to stand on end.' * * * On Monday, [April] 7th, we are informed that
a locomotive ran upon the railroad, for the first time, as far as Davis'
tavern in Newton, a distance of eight or nine miles, accompanied by a part
of the directors and fifty or sixty other persons, for the purpose of making
trial of the engine and examination of the road. * * * The engine
traveled with ease, at the rate of twenty miles an hour.' The next
day, a larger party went over the ground.' * * * It would not appear to
have been a very successful affair; for 'after proceeding a short distance,
their progress was interrupted by the breaking of a connecting rod between
two of the cars, * * * and unfortunately a similar accident occurred three
or four times during the excursion.' So after a short stop at Newton,
the party came back, quite cross, apparently, and did not get home until
half-past six in the evening."
The following is quoted by Smith from the Director's
Repot of June 2, 1834: "The railroad was opened for the conveyance
of passengers between Boston and Newton, (the West village), a distance
of 8 1/2 miles, on the 16th of April last. A locomotive engine has
been run three times daily to Newton and back with from two to 8 passenger
cars each trip. The passage each way is usually made in about 28
minutes, an average rate of speed of 18 miles per hour. The passages
have been made by the 'Meteor' engine, which was built by Mr. Stephenson,
of England."
The beginnings of the railroad in Auburndale date even
earlier than the graphic account of the eye-witness to the trial of the
first locomotive: for in 1833 a right of way was conveyed by certain
owners of Auburndale, land to the railroad "as now staked out and partly
graded for a common road and railroad," as a deed of April, 1833 expresses
it. That part of Auburn Street between the station and Woodland Road
originally ran on the south side of the railroad location, and was laid
out on the present line about this time.
Mrs. Caroline J. Barker of West Newton saw the first
train, which ran over the road to West Newton, and says that the engine
looked like "an old boiler". Her grandfather, who was out in the
fields when the train passed through Newtonville, seeing the locomotive
approaching, ran, alarmed, to tell the family that "the devil was coming."
Through trains to Worcester were run in 1837, and the
first special to West Newton in 1843. How it was arranged by Mr.
Pigeon to have a flag-stop at Auburndale has already been described.
The flag station, a shanty about four or five feet square, put up in '47
on the north side of the track, stood beside a huge apple tree, and near
it was the semaphore which had to be set by hand in order to induce the
train to stop. Mr. C.H.Johnson was the first regular passenger, on
his daily trip from Auburndale to Boston, and had to find what shelter
he could from the wind and weather in the small shanty. On wintry
days, the frozen arm of the semaphore could not always be moved, and Mr.
Johnson remembers standing on the track and waving his hat, which served
very well as a signal. The brakemen had to stop the train with hand
brakes, and were not always anxious to take this trouble for a solitary
young man. Mr. Joshua Washburn bought railroad tickets, and at train
time, would be at the flag station ready to sell them at a few cents premium
to those who were about to take the train.
The first engines that Mr. G. H. Frost remembers had
no cabs, and looked like 'pile-driving machines' with 'two steampipes as
big around as a good-sized tea kettle"; the cars he recalls as having side
doors.
From Mr. J.L.Hillard, we get an idea of the locomotives
of a little later period: "The engines in those days were all wood
burners, and had large smoke stakes like an inverted cone. Those
on the passenger trains were painted up in red and gilt, and made quite
a gala appearance. They were all named instead of being numbered
as engines are at the present time. I recall about all of the names
now. The engine on the Lower Falls trains was the "Comet", on the
Saxonville train the "Fury", on the Worcester trains, "Nathan Hale" and
"David Henshaw", on the New York express train the "Express" and "despatch"
and on the New York mail train, the "Bee". The freight engines were
named for wild animals, mythological characters, and volcanoes, namely:
-Elephant, Lion, Tiger, Bison, Camel, Leopard, Mercury, Ajax and Hercules:
the Vesuvius, Aetna and Hecla. We boys knew them and their running
time so well that we could tell time of day by them without having to look
at a clock."
"The 'Fury' and the 'Comet' were wonderful engines to
our childish ideas, although the 'Fury' was famous for breaking down quite
often," writes Miss Annie Hinckley. "We went every evening to meet
our father when he came from Boston, and many a time had a long wait for
the 'Fury' to arrive. Often on a Saturday afternoon, father would
come on a Worcester train which did not stop at our station. Then
we would go halfway up town to meet him. That train was drawn by
the 'David Henshaw', a very aristocratic engine, we thought, for it had
a straight smokestack. The 'Fury' and the 'Comet' had the old-style
funnel shaped smokestacks. The cars were rather shorter than now,
heated by stoves, and lighted by lamps."
In 1851 a comfortable station was built by Mr. A.S. Johnson
near the site of the present modern one but somewhat nearer Hancock Street,
on the opposite side of the track from where the little flag station had
stood. This second building still survives as Barsam's Market, on
the corner of Ash and Auburn Streets. In the '50s it was a post-office
as well as station, and George L. Bourne was postmaster and station agent.
Previous to this, the nearest post-office had been in West Newton.
The method of distributing mail in those days was primitive. Strings
were stretched across the inside of the window sash, and letters inserted
against the glass, which the addresses so arranged that all who ran might
read. Miss Hattie Walker tells how she and her sister used to stand
on tiptoe trying to see the letters placed in the window, but, peer as
they might, were not tall enough to read the addresses. Finally,
they would have to go in and inquire for letters, a dreaded ordeal, as
the postmaster expected everyone to pick out his own mail.
From our modern cosmopolitan minds, this simplicity of
mail and railroad service is far removed. We have progressed, outwardly,
at least; but with the old-fashioned inconveniences has gone, alas, much
of the old-fashioned charm.
Auburndale in 1817
BACK