were the wives of John J. Fiske, for many years a prominent citizen of Charlestown, John P. Welch, treasurer of the Fitchburg Railroad, and Samuel N. Felton, the distinguished civil-engineer and railroad official and manager. His eldest daughters, Mary and Catherine, will be remembered for their great usefulness in the Unitarian Church and in the benevolent enterprises and institutions in the town.

MARCH 23, 1895.

LX

The Turnpike --- Chelsea Street

A

Its Vicinity Former Residents.

LITTLE below the David Stetson estate on

Turnpike Street was the residence of Dr. George Bates, for many years the naval-store keeper. The house is still standing, but changed greatly in its appearance. Formerly it had a large open area in front of it, with a driveway to the stable on the lot. Now this land is covered by a building, and the old house has been converted into a fish-market. The adjoining house, on the corner of Henley and Putnam streets, now occupied as a bread and cake shop, was for a long period the home of Jonah Stetson, the father of Captain Lemuel Stetson, who after retiring from sea-life purchased and occupied one of the houses in the Harvard Row block. The Putnam Street house was also, for several years, the residence of Addison Gage, before his removal to Cordis Street. On the opposite corner of Putnam and Henley streets was the garden of Captain Larkin Turner. This garden-spot is now covered by the bakery of Mrs. McNamara, but the brick house, which was the Turner residence, is still standing. Captain Turner was a shipmaster of note in his day, and, after his retirement from that calling, a prominent man in the town, which

he represented in the Legislature of 1835 and '36. He was one of the board of directors of the Bunker Hill Bank for eleven years, from October, 1834, to October, 1845.

The brick building referred to, for some years before its purchase and reconstruction by Captain Turner, was the business place of Isaac Larkin, tallow-chandler, and many were the boxes of candles tossed from the deliverywindows of this factory and loaded into wagons backed up there to receive them. Isaac Larkin was the father of John S. Larkin, cashier for a long while of the Merchants' Bank, Boston, and of Charles Larkin, of the firm of Barnard, Adams & Co., and afterwards the head of that of Larkin & Stackpole, largely interested in the South American trade. Mr. Larkin's sister was the wife of Abel Adams of the old house of Barnard, Adams & Co. This well-known Boston merchant commenced his business career in the store of Skinner, Hurd & Co., in Charlestown Square.

Just around the corner of Turnpike Street, on Shippey Street (now Chestnut Street), were the pleasant homes of Jacob and William Caswell-the first a pump and block maker whose place of business was on Henley Place, which runs from Turnpike Street to the Navy Yard wall. Many times in his boyhood has the writer watched the boring of logs that were to be fitted with boxes, noses, and handles to lift the water from the cisterns and wells under the kitchens, washrooms, and yards of houses about the town, for this was the only water-supply at the time, and numerous sticks of lignumvitæ has he seen transformed into sheaves, grooved and fitted into blocks, while the shop was hung round with a

wholesale supply of dead-eyes, hooks, rings, and vessels' tackling of all kinds.

William Caswell was a caulker and graver who occupied a wharf on Water Street which is now merged in the Hoosac Dock and Elevator property but was formerly known as Caswell's Wharf. The Caswells were much respected citizens and enterprising and successful business men. They both were pew-holders in the Universalist Church and constant attendants at its services.

The late John Mullett was the son-in-law of William Caswell. He was brought up with Elisha L. Phelps in the West India goods store on the corner of Turnpike and Shippey streets, the same afterwards for some years occupied by Jotham Johnson, Jr. This building was originally used as a pump and block maker's shop, and here Jacob Caswell is said to have served his apprenticeship. Mr. Mullett, with Oliver C. Cutter, under the firm name of Cutter & Mullett, commenced business in 1842 in a wooden building which was on the same site as the brick store afterwards built by him and which is now occupied by his son as his successor. Here, from 1842

until his death in 1893, a part of the time with Oakes Bradbury (Mullett & Bradbury), he remained the successful and popular proprietor of this widely known business stand and store.

Near to the Caswells, on the corner of Shippey (Chestnut) and Adams streets, was the residence of Caleb Pierce, in the brick house still standing there. He was for a long period the master-carpenter in the Navy Yard, a thrifty man who made several public bequests in his last will. Among them was a sum of

money, "the income of which was to be expended in purchasing fuel for indigent widows whose husbands had resided in Charlestown at least one year before their decease, said widows still continuing to live in Charlestown." The last report of the city auditor gives the amount of the Pierce fund as $1500, invested in city bonds. He also gave to the Universalist society, of which he was a member, a brick house on Chestnut Street, near his own, for a parsonage. John Wade, the master-boat builder in the Navy Yard, and Edward Harding, the master-sparmaker, owned and occupied the brick houses just above Mullett's store on Chelsea Street. At an earlier period in the town history George Brown kept the grocery-store in this vicinity. It was on Wapping Street, as you go to the Navy Yard gate. Samuel C. Hunt, the father of the founder of The Enterprise, was his clerk and married his daughter. On the corner of Wapping and Water streets Philander S. Briggs and Briggs & Willis spent many years as the proprietors of a similar store, and near to them on Wapping Street the old wharfinger of Gray's Wharf in Boston, James Runey, was a figure for half a century.

The adjoining wharf to Caswell's on Water Street was owned by Benjamin Brintnall, and here was a marine railway, of which he was the proprietor and manager. At this time the harbor was full of small schooners, brigs, brigantines, and barks, and this was one of the convenient places where they could be hauled up, re-caulked, and re-coppered, in case of need. Mr. Brintnall was a worthy citizen and represented the town in the Legislature of 1831. His brother Samuel, the