committee on bridges of the City of Boston. In the fall of 1874 he was appointed by the City of Boston inspector of the building of Congress Street Bridge, and later of several other bridges up to the year 1877, which closed his employment on public works. After that time he had no steady employment, and for the last six years of his life had wholly retired from business and was resting on his oars, gliding quietly down the stream.

The aggregate time during which Mr. Rice was employed on public works was fifty years, and on other works fifteen years. His life of usefulness and uniform success was closed by his death on Sunday, December 2, 1888, at the age of eighty-six years.

DECEMBER 8, 1888.

XXIV

Dexter Row

John F. Skinner-Henry P. Fairbanks

Shadrach Varney.

J

OHN F. SKINNER, as we have said in a former

article, was a partner with his father and uncle in

the old firm of Skinner & Hurd. He was afterwards one of the firm of Hurd, Hutchins & Skinner, who may be said to have continued the business of the old Charlestown house in their store on South Market Street, Boston. Mr. Skinner was one of the first residents in Dexter Row.

William H. Skinner, another son of John Skinner, was a partner in the firm of Stanley, Reed & Co., whose place of business was on the corner of Main and Henley streets, where the building of the Warren Institution for Savings is now located. They did a large jobbing business here as grocers and dealers in country produce. Their store and the buildings connected with it extended from Main Street to Park Street, and for many years it was a place of great activity. When the business which had been done in Charlestown was diverted by the construction of railroads, the firm moved to Boston, and was as prominent there as it had been in Charlestown, for a decade or more longer.

Another son of John Skinner, although dying when quite a young man, lived long enough to endear himself

to a large circle of friends, any of whom now living will remember with pleasure the prepossessing and genial Benjamin Hurd Skinner, their former acquaintance and associate. His business life was much on the ocean as a supercargo, his discomfort from asthma being less at sea than on shore.

Our respected townsman, George A. Skinner, is the only surviving son of the once prominent merchant I have endeavored to call back to memory.

The well-known Dexter Row, a block of six brick houses, was built in 1836, on the Main Street front of the old Samuel Dexter estate, where it is still standing to testify to the thoroughness of its construction, its fine proportions, and so forth. A critical look at this block of buildings will show the rare good judgment exercised in its elevation or location upon the lot of land, and that great care was taken in the selection of materials and workmanship in its construction. Compared with first-class buildings of the present day, it is only a very plain block of brick houses, and yet it will bear careful scrutiny and be pronounced very creditable to the architect and builder of its time.

The first occupants of these houses were Shadrach Varney, John F. Skinner, Henry P. Fairbanks, Daniel White, Rev. Dr. George E. Ellis. Among later residents were Nathan A. Tufts, Benjamin Thompson, Jacob Forster, John W. Damon, Isaac Kendall, Doctor Hayes, Doctor Beckford, Samuel Knight. Its character has been kept up to the present time, while its central location has attracted to it many of our best physicians, until it may almost be looked upon as the headquarters of the profession in this district.

Henry P. Fairbanks, whose wife was a daughter of John Skinner, lived in Charlestown for twenty years after his marriage. He was a member of the State Legislature in 1847, as a representative from Charlestown, and of the Governor's Council in 1853. He was also a member of the City Government from its organization in 1847; and for five years previous to his death, in February, 1854, he was president of the Common Council. At the time of his death he was president of the Charlestown Lyceum, an institution in which he took a deep interest. His social and domestic virtues were very marked. A generous friend and a noble-hearted man, it is doubtful if any resident of the town ever enjoyed more fully the confidence of his fellow-citizens. A Whig in politics, he was prominent in his party and an earnest, active worker for it, aiming always at success, and yet was so honorable and fair to his opponents that their respect for him and their admiration for his character were never lost. Ever ready to help, but never to injure, his hand was open and his heart in sympathy with every good movement, and he was uninfluenced by prejudice or narrowness in deciding how he should

act.

Mr. Fairbanks' place of business was in Boston, where he stood high as a merchant, but he had made his home in Charlestown, and he was as mindful of the reputation of the old town as if he had been to the manor born. The town never suffered detraction from him, but gained much in his citizenship and from the energy, activity, and interest which he manifested in its affairs. A keen sense of great loss to the community was felt at his sudden death from scarlet fever when he was only forty

five years old. Charles F. Fairbanks, treasurer of the Bigelow Carpet Company, is his son.

Shadrach Varney was for many years the manager of the smith's department in the Navy Yard, or the masterblacksmith, as he was called. After he left the Navy

Yard he was interested in real-estate operations, among others, the purchase of the land and building of the Dexter Row block, of which he had the superintendence. He was a fine-looking man, and in his early days was one of the captains of the old Charlestown Light Infantry. He took command for the first time, June 17, 1825, the day of the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, when the company paraded in a new uniform and was presented with an artistic standard by Miss Judith Delano in behalf of many ladies, from the steps of her home, the large wooden house still standing on the corner of Austin and Lawrence streets.

JANUARY 5, 1889.

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