The Secret History of Boston

[LMNO]

Can't stop now; there's still some ugliness to cover.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

FUCK!
What happens next!!

[Eater of Clowns]

New Bedford, Part III

"...Lord I would they had screamed...such noise might haunt...deserve to be haunted; wailing to deaden the crackling of timber and...the world with their passing beyond the burnt husk...count myself any longer among the Friends...quiet of our meetings lest I scream so like these others did not...needed happen to end the foulness...Diana, sweet youth, bright and gone...wretched thing. I cannot help but feel it wanted...ends. Forgive me."

The excerpt, water damaged, faded, tattered and yellowed hangs in a framed plaque in the private collection of New Bedford historian Charles Waltham. He discovered the old parchment himself while rummaging through the records of a prominent local family. The family was unable to place its significance, though Waltham believes it is tied to the destruction of the Alagonsett Meeting House by fire in 1682.

Other records of the fire are thin and scattered. It is generally agreed that the blaze occurred during the night and went unnoticed in the sleeping settlement but for the chance spotting of its orange glow from far in the distance. Seven are thought to have died within.

That victims were claimed in the lodge fire well past midnight did not go unnoticed by the now superstitious local populace. It does not take many disappearances in such a small area to arouse suspicion, which was placed solely upon the Alagonsett Meeting House.

"The fire wasn't much of a mystery," Waltham says. "It might be now, what with how little we can figure out, but it couldn't have been much of one then. Mysteries invite talk. Speculation. If anyone back then was trying to figure out what happened we'd have letters and such, but this scrap is, well, scrap. What it says to me is people knew. And they didn't want to talk about it."

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Gotta come back to this. Apparently I lost some of the previous posts in the shuffle. Will revisit some ideas too.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

New Bedford, Part III

"...Lord I would they had screamed...such noise might haunt...deserve to be haunted; wailing to deaden the crackling of timber and...the world with their passing beyond the burnt husk...count myself any longer among the Friends...quiet of our meetings lest I scream so like these others did not...needed happen to end the foulness...Diana, sweet youth, bright and gone...wretched thing. I cannot help but feel it wanted...ends. Forgive me."

The excerpt, water damaged, faded, tattered and yellowed hangs in a framed plaque in the private collection of New Bedford historian Charles Waltham. He discovered the old parchment himself while rummaging through the records of a prominent local family. The family was unable to place its significance, though Waltham believes it is tied to the destruction of the Alagonsett Meeting House by fire in 1682.

Other records of the fire are thin and scattered. It is generally agreed that the blaze occurred during the night and went unnoticed in the sleeping settlement but for the chance spotting of its orange glow from far in the distance. Seven are thought to have died within.

That victims were claimed in the lodge fire well past midnight did not go unnoticed by the now superstitious local populace. It does not take many disappearances in such a small area to arouse suspicion, which was placed solely upon the Alagonsett Meeting House.

"The fire wasn't much of a mystery," Waltham says. "It might be now, what with how little we can figure out, but it couldn't have been much of one then. Mysteries invite talk. Speculation. If anyone back then was trying to figure out what happened we'd have letters and such, but this scrap is, well, scrap. What it says to me is people knew. And they didn't want to talk about it."

Nice!

[LMNO]

Dammit, I need to finish this one out.  Or at least add a few more chapters.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

Edge of my seat.
Seriously.

[LMNO]

Pressure seeks release.  If nothing else can be learned, it is this.  Well removed from the Molasses flood zone was a section of Boston that grew up around some buildings purchased in 1795 by an ex-militia man named William Scollay.  His estate sold it in 1865, so he's not really important to this, other than the name "Scollay Square" stuck.

What's important is that some other notable people began buying up property in the Square.  William T. G. Morton for one, a notable surgeon, dentist, Freemason, and scoundrel, his career made famous by the introduction of inhaled ether as an anesthetic during operations in 1846.  There was also Josiah Johnson Hawes, a photographer of exquisite portraits through the mid the end of the 19th century, but upon his death in 1901, the executors of his estate were shocked to find hidden compartments in his office that had other kinds of "portraits," each more odd and brutal than the previous.

There was also a church built in the square.  The church was for the Millerite Adventists, who believed the world would end in 1846.  They began building in 1843, finishing in 1845.  Just in time for the world not to end.  Well, for everyone except a core group Millerites, found kneeling around the makeshift altar, their throats torn out.  After everything was cleaned up, it was converted into the Old Howard Theater, only for it to burn down a few months later by the neighboring Brattle Square Baptist church.  They escaped prosecution by citing the spot as a place of blasphemy, though it's unsure if what was being referred to was the Millerite's temple, or the structure that followed.

Despite the fire, the theater was rebuilt, in a pseudo-Gothic style, as "The Howard Athenaeum" with high, arched windows, and sturdy pillars lining the entrance.  It drew crowds from all around with it's mix of high and low performances, from opera to burlesque; and there were even tales of "closed door" events that sparked the curiosity of men (and some women) of a certain persuasion.  One of these special events was apparently the cause of yet another fire on February 2, 1846.  Notebooks found in the archives of Gardiner Greene's estate (being a noteworthy importer of exceedingly rare manuscripts and tomes of so-called "heathen" knowledge, all his writings are extremely well preserved) tell of a performance

"So vast in scope... The meticulous costumes, most obscene in cut and style; Nary a quiet heart exist'd in that audience as an enormous ball of flame burst from the floor in anticipation of the all-powerful Solar Deity! And to such effect, such masterful deceit, an illusion of such trickery, to make we viewers believe a child, no more than six, wrapped head to toe in fine linens, with jagged markings covering its body, be flung into the flames!  Such shrieks from the women, groans from the men!  The applause, as the flames rose higher, higher, licking at the molding above!  Then groans turned to shouts, as the bowl of fire toppled forward into the orchestra pit and the audience scattered towards the exits, and I followed.  But as I looked back, the final wonder of the mummer's genius revealed itself to me, as they had hidden in the bowl, a simulacrum of a small skeleton, badly charred, which had tumbled to the edge of the stage, burning quite fiercely..."

Though burned to the ground, the Old Howard was once again completely rebuilt by that October.

More to Come

[Eater of Clowns]

YES.

[LMNO]

Edited to add whitespace and font for diary excerpt.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hot damn!

[LMNO]

I'm not sure if I should wrap it up after Scollay Sq, or if there's something else I need to cover?  Integrated bussing doesn't work.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm not sure if I should wrap it up after Scollay Sq, or if there's something else I need to cover?  Integrated bussing doesn't work.

Let me answer this on Monday, after I've had a chance to do a little reading.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Creeeepy!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Copp's Hill Burying Ground vs King's Chapel Burying Ground.

If you look at the list of notables buried in each, there's an interesting pattern.