he was held at the time, will immortalize his name, while his more beautiful inspiration as it was given to us by his pen will perhaps be more enduring still.

O'Reilly never occupied either of these houses we have described. They were purchased by him for investment. But we are glad that he was a resident of Charlestown for many years previous to his death, on August 10, 1890. His wife was a Charlestown girl, sister to James S. and John R. Murphy, and his residence was in Winthrop Street. He will be remembered here for his remarkable personal attractiveness and bearing as well as for his genius and ability.

MARCH 22, 1902.

LXXIV

High Street Sixty Years Ago

My Boyhood Home - The Neighbors - Thomas B. Harris The Elm Street News-Room.

N the easterly corner of School and High streets stood a rather attractive house, the side walls of brick, and the front-on High Street, looking toward the west of wood, sheathed, and always bright with white paint. On the southern side of the estate was a garden of very considerable size, where fruit and flowers were cultivated and much enjoyed by the occupants of the house.

This was the home of the writer in his childhood and youth. It was purchased by his father, William Sawyer, of Ichiel Smith, its builder, in 1827, very soon after its completion, and here was the home of the family until the death of his mother, Susannah Sawyer, in 1885, when she was ninety-five years old. His father died May 1, 1830. After his mother's death, the estate was sold to the late Francis B. Austin, and the house was taken down, its proportions not being such as could be worked profitably into an apartment block, covering the whole land, which he contemplated erecting. And so it turned out that in its whole life-time of fifty-eight years this finely located and substantially built residence

was occupied by only one family, certainly an unusual occurrence. Here, during all that period of time, they lived quietly, comfortably, happily; the good God smiling upon them, blessing them with contentment and gratitude, and fitting them for the discipline of grief and bereavement which sooner or later comes to all. Here two of my sisters, Mrs. David S. Messinger, of Worcester, Massachusetts, and Mrs. Abram P. Prichard, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were married, and here my parents and two of my sisters died. This old home! — it is fixed in my memory, stamped upon my heart; and it all remains with me as it was, a constant reminder of my obligations for its good influence upon my character, a constant cause of gratitude to the Giver of all life's blessings.

When the family removed from Thompson Street to this new home, the lookout from the garden fence was over what was known as the Odin pasture, which extended to Elm Street and was bounded by High Street on the west and Summer Street on the east, with not a building on its lines on either of these streets. But not long after this time the pasture was laid out into lots and sold.

The brick house on High Street, now the residence of our good friend and fellow-citizen, George W. Berry, was built by a nephew of Edward Adams and very soon afterwards conveyed to his uncle for his family residence. The next house to it, of wood, was erected for Captain William Henry, whose home it was for a very long period. It was taken down to make room for the apartment houses erected by Mr. Berry. The corner lot on High and Elm streets was purchased by James B.

Tamplin, and the building now there, in which for so long a time was the grocery-store of John P. Currier, was put up and occupied for a while by Tamplin. On Elm Street, corner of Summer, Edward Nichols made a home for his family, and on Summer Street two wooden buildings were erected for William Raymond and Captain Burnham.

The whole area of the Odin pasture was thus in a short time covered with buildings. With a boy's eyes the writer watched the process of their construction, from the digging of the cellars to the capping out of the chimneys, from the setting of partitions to the last rubbing down of the inside finish, and in memory it all comes back to him as if it were but yesterday. Yes; and he can just as easily brush them all away, and in memory reinstate the old pasture with the rail-fence around it, a playground for children and the scene of many foot-ball contests by boys of an older growth on Thanksgiving and Fast days and other holidays. The outlook from the garden fence could have been extended for a long distance over the other side of Elm Street, for there were no buildings there, nothing but pasture-land where the cows were feeding and the frogs singing. All this, however, has been referred to in another paper, and it will be best not to stray too far away from the subject of the present writing- the home of my boyhood and its immediate neighborhood.

And what a pleasant neighborhood it was at this early date, and for years afterwards! An old-fashioned brick house which stood on the site now occupied by the residence of the late Thaddeus Richardson was owned and occupied by John Johnson. The wooden building

still standing on the corner of High and School streets had a large garden extending for quite a distance along High Street and half-way down towards Main Street, and was the homestead-estate of John M. Fiske. Johnson and Fiske were prominent men of their time, and with their families were our first neighbors. Then the Adams, Henry, Whipple, Willard, and Sampson families were added. Then the Fiske garden on High Street was covered with the wooden block still standing, and Andrew K. Hunt, Benjamin Bruce, Charles B. Fessenden, and others, were the occupants. Indeed, there was a succession of good people and agreeable neighbors on both sides of the street during fifty years.

In 1839, soon after his marriage, the writer purchased the Adams house, and lived there until 1851, when he sold it to Francis W. Pearson and moved to his new house, No. 46 High Street, which was finished in the summer of that year. The Pearsons, before moving in, made very considerable alterations and lived here several years, and then removed for a while to Baltimore, at which time it was conveyed to Thomas B. Harris, a worthy representative of one of the oldest of Charlestown families, his ancestors running back to the very beginning of the settlement in 1630. Mr. Harris was never married. He made his home with his sister, Mrs. John P. Currier, all the members of whose family looked up to him with the greatest respect and love. He was a public-spirited citizen and held many positions of honor and trust before and after annexation, until his death, September 27, 1883, when he was one of the Sinking Fund Commissioners of the city of Boston. He was in the Legislature in 1870-'72, and was an alderman in both cities.