Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1712

C.W. Gushee was the name of a dairy farm at 92 Fuller Street.  Almond S. Gushee owned about 2 acres there, a farm that appears with his name on the atlases from 1884 through 1918.  Sometime after 1918 and before 1933, the land was subdivided for new houses.  92 Fuller Street is on the south side of Fuller on the section of Fuller that runs between Dorchester Avenue and Washington Street, close to Washington Street.

Does anyone know any more about this operation?

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1711

Ray Bolger

From Wikipedia

Ray Bolger (January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987) was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow (and the farmworker “Huck”) in the 1939 film classic, The Wizard of Oz.

Ray Bolger was born Raymond Wallace Bulcão to a Roman Catholic family of Portuguese and Irish extraction in Dorchester, Massachusetts, a heavily Irish neighborhood at the time.

His father was a house-painter, his mother a homemaker. He was inspired by the vaudeville shows he attended when he was young to become an entertainer himself. He began his career as a dancer. His limber body and ability to ad lib movement won him many starring roles on Broadway in the 1930s.

His film career began when he signed a $10,000 a week contract with Lionsgate Films in 1936. His best-known film prior to The Wizard of Oz was The Great Ziegfeld (1936), in which he portrayed himself.

Bolger’s studio contract stipulated that he would play any part the studio chose; however, he was unhappy when he was cast as the Tin Man. The Scarecrow part had already been assigned to another lean and limber dancing studio contract player, Buddy Ebsen.

In time, the roles were switched. While Bolger was pleased with his role as the Scarecrow, Ebsen was struck ill by the powdered aluminum make-up used to complete the Tin Man costume. (The powdered aluminum had been inhaled and coated Ebsen’s lungs, leaving him near death. Ironically, Ebsen would outlive all the principal players of Oz.) Ebsen’s illness paved the way for the role to be filled by Jack Haley.

Bolger’s performance in Oz was a tour de force. He displayed the full range of his physical, comedic, and dramatic talents playing the character searching for the brain that he’s always had. The Scarecrow’s sympathy for Dorothy Gale‘s plight, his cleverness and bravery in rescuing her from the Wicked Witch of the West (played by Margaret Hamilton) and his deep affection for her shone through, endearing the character — and Bolger — in the public mind forever. Whenever queried as to whether he received any residuals from broadcasts of the 1939 classic, Bolger would reply: “No, just immortality. I’ll settle for that.”[2]

Following Oz, Bolger moved to RKO. He starred in several more films and had a sitcom called Where’s Raymond? from 1953 – 1955 (also known as “The Ray Bolger Show”). He also made frequent guest appearances on television. In 1985 he and Liza Minnelli, the daughter of his Oz co-star Judy Garland, starred in “That’s Dancing” — a film also written by Jack Haley, Jr., the son of late Tin Man actor Jack Haley. Liza Minnelli and Jack Haley, Jr. would have a brief marriage some years later.

Ray Bolger died in Los Angeles, California of cancer just five days after his 83rd birthday, and is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, in the Mausoleum, Crypt F2, Block 35.

He was survived by his wife of 57 1/2 years, Gwendolyn Rickard. [3]

At the time of his death, he was the last surviving member of the main Oz cast. An editorial cartoon the day after his death featured the Oz cast dancing off into the setting sun, with the Scarecrow running to catch up. 

Source: Wikipedia 2006

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February 19, 2012  at 2 pm.

Submit your best creation to the Great Chocolate Cook-Off 2012. 

To participate, call or email Earl Taylor 617 293-3052 or ERMMWWT@aol.com

Deliver your creation to the Dorchester Historical Society by 11:00 am on Feb. 19th. 

February 19, 2012  at 2 pm.

Chocolate program – Chocolate History, Production and Tastings by Rebecca Scheier, Chef at Tie Your Apron Cooking School

There will be a Sampling of colonial chocolate and a Children’s Corner for reading a book about cocoa called “Cocoa and Ice”.

Dorchester Historical Society              

195 Boston Street                                      

Dorchester, MA  02125            

www.dorchesterhistoricalsocietyblog.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1710

The following is a footnote in the Clapp genealogy.

Rev. John Codman, D.D., was born in Boston, Aug. 3, 1782.  He was son of Hon. John Codman and Margaret Russell his wife, grandson of John, of Charlestown and great-grandson of Capt. John, who came to an untimely end by being poisoned by his three negro slaves about the middle of the 18^th century.  It is recorded by the biographer of Rev. Dr. C. that one of these slaves was executed for his crime on the northerly side of the Cambridge road, about a quarter of a mile above the peninsula, and that another, a female, was burned at the stake, about ten yards from the gallows!—the only instance, it is said, in the history of this country, of that method of punishment under the authority of the law.  Dr. Codman graduated at Harvard College in 1802, studied for the ministry under the Rev. Henry Ware, then of Hingham, and in 1805 embarked for Europe, to finish his theological studies there.  After spending three years broad, he returned home, and in August, 1808, first preached to the Second Church in Dorchester, then recently organized, their new meeting-house having been dedicated Oct. 30, 1806.  He was ordained pastor of this church Dec. 7, 1808, the Rev. Dr. Channing (from whom he very soon after separated in theological belief) preaching the ordination sermon.  In about a year after his settlement, commenced the celebrated controversy between him and many members of the parish, which lasted for three years, but neither the merits nor the details of which can be here entered into.  In 1821, an interesting journey by Dr. C. and his wife was made to the state of Georgia, including a Sunday passed at Midway, among the descendants of the people of Dorchester who emigrated thence in 1695.  They then took passage for Europe, returning home the next year.  Two other visits to Europe were afterwards made by Dr. C.  The position attained by Dr. Codman as pastor of the Second Church, and as a leading and able minister in the denomination to which he belonged, was elevated, and his death, which took place Dec. 23, 1847, in his 66^th year, was much lamented.

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1709

Thomas Groom had an estate on Humphreys Street near Upham’s Corner.

The following description of Thomas Groom appears in the book The Rich Men of Massachusetts: Containing a Statement of the Reputed Wealth of about Fifteen Hundred Persons, with Brief Sketches of More than One Thousand Characters.  By A. Forbes and J.W. Greene.  Boston: Published by W.V. Spencer, 1851.

Thomas Groom

Worth: $75,000

An Englishman by birth, though no one acquainted with his business shrewdness would ever mistrust that he was not a genuine Yankee. Has made his money in the stationery trade.  A man highly respected for his honorable and fair dealing.  He never shrinks from doing his part in bearing the burdens of community.

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1708

Nathan Carruth, 1808-1888.

The following is taken from American Series of Popular Biographies. Massachusetts Edition.  Boston, 1891.

NATHAN CARRUTH, first president of the Old Colony Railroad, was born in North Brookfield, Mass., December 25, 1808, and died at his home in Dorchester, May 19, 1888.  Nathan Carruth was educated in his native town, and resided there until seventeen years old.  Coming to Boston in 1825, in the succeeding year he was employed as a clerk by a concern engaged in the West India goods trade, and he then served an apprenticeship in the drug store of Messrs. Fletcher and Carruth.  After the dissolution of that firm in 1831, he entered into partnership with his brother Francis, under the firm name of F.S. & N. Carruth.   They were associated in business for eight years, at the expiration of which time Nathan Carruth formed a copartnership with his younger brother Charles, under the firm name of N. & C. Carruth.  The latter concern had a most successful career in the drug business in Boston, covering a period of many years.

The revolutionizing of traffic made possible by the advent of steam as a motive power found a most enthusiastic supporter in Mr. Carruth, who devoted much time, energy, and capital to the introduction of railway lines in Massachusetts and other New England States.  He not only labored to promote their establishment, but after their completion he took an active interest in their welfare; and besides being the first president and general manager of the Old Colony Railroad, he was for a number of years treasurer of the Northern Railroad of New Hampshire.  He was the president of the Dorchester Gaslight Company and a director of the Mattapan Bank.  Politically, he was a Republican.  In 1847 he moved to Dorchester, laying out at great expense a most attractive estate in what is now known as Ashmont.  He resided there for the rest of his life.

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1707

Fred Allen, 1894-1956 

From: Fred Allen’s Letters edited by Joe McCarthy. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965

A Boston Irishman, born in 1894 and christened John Florence Sullivan, Allen was the son of a bookbinder who earned $19.23 a week.  His mother died when he was three years old and he was raised by his Aunt Lizzie (“a wonderful name”) in the Allston and Dorchester sections of the city, working as a youngster in the Boston Public Library and as an errand boy for a piano company.  Allen was still in his teens when he broke into vaudeville as a comic juggler who cracked jokes as he juggled, first using the stage name Fred St. James and later Freddy James.  His routine soon began to feature more jokes than juggling, including such sure-fire howlers as, “Condensed milk is wonderful but how can they get a cow to sit down on those little cans?”  and “She was so old when they lit the candles on her birthday cake six people were overcome by the heat.”

Freddy James became Fred Allen when he was breaking into big-time vaudeville as a comedy monologuist; with a new name and new jokes he could ask for a higher salary than the $75 a week that Freddy James had been getting in small-time theaters.  In 1919, Fred Allen made a smashingly successful debut at B.F. Keith’s Palace on Broadway, the highest pinnacle of vaudeville.  Any performer who had played the Palace in those days could be assured of being booked by the manager of any important theater in the country, sight unseen.  By 1922, after touring as a headliner on the Keith circuit, Allen was playing in Shubert vaudeville on the same bills with such big stars as Lew Fields and Nora Bayes and earning the then astronomical salary of $400 a week.  Writing his own highly original comedy lines—which were often borrowed by Al Jolson and other greats—he was already identified in show business as a performer with a classy following.  Three times in one season he was brought back for return engagements at the Shubert Theater in New Haven by demands from admiring Yale undergraduates.

Fred took a job, which he thought would be only temporary, as the writer and star of a weekly radio comedy program, sponsored by Linit Starch.  He remained in radio for the next seventeen years and never appeared on the stage again.

Although he was one of the big show business celebrities of his time—a top radio star in that golden age of radio was as important as a top movie star—Allen never behaved like a celebrity and never thought of himself as anybody particularly special.  When television replaced radio as the dominating entertainment medium, Allen made a few tentative tries at it but he never felt at ease in television and the network executives at NBC wanted no part of the comedy show that he wanted to do, a sort of Allen’s Alley with the visual format of Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town. 

In the last few years of his life, Allen appeared Sunday nights on television as a panelist on What’s My Line? An easy chore approved by his physicians because it required no rehearsing or script preparation.  He spent the rest of the week writing two autobiographical books, Treadmill to Oblivion, an account of his years in radio, and Much Ado About Me, memoirs of vaudeville and musical comedy days.  Allen had always wanted to be a full-time writer; one reason why he devoted so much time to turning out so many letters was the satisfaction that he found at his typewriter.  He often said that he enjoyed the preparation of his radio scripts more than the performance of his shows.  When he left radio, he seriously considered writing skits and monologues for other comedians like his good friend, Goodman Ace.  In his earlier years, he had written comedy material for a fellow Irish Bostonian, Jack Donahue, the famous Ziegfeld comedian-dancer of the 1920s.  Allen was greatly encouraged when Treadmill to Oblivion won praise from critics and became a best seller in 1954.  He plunged into Much Ado About Me with relish, working daily in an office without a telephone a few blocks from his Manhattan apartment.

On the night of Saint Patrick’s Day, 1956, when Much Ado About Me was not quite finished, Allen was stricken with a fatal heart attack while walking his dog on West 57^th Street. 

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1706

Elida Rumsey Fowle

[from a clipping from some unknown, undated publication, from the 2^nd half of the 19^th century]

Of all the women who devoted themselves to the soldiers in our late war [Civil War], perhaps none had a more varied experience than Elida B. Rumsey—a girl so young that Miss Dix would not receive her as a nurse.  Undaunted by seeming difficulties, she persisted in “doing the next thing,” and so fulfilled her great desire to do something for the soldiers, for wherever she saw a soldier in need her ready sympathies were enlisted, little caring if the heart bets stirred a coat of blue or gray.

She was engaged to Mr. John A. Fowle, of Jamaica Plain, Mass., who was employed in the Navy Dept, Washington, but who devoted all his spare time to philanthropic enterprises, and their work was supplementary from the first.  In Nov. ’61, she began to visit the hospitals and sing to the soldiers, and the knowledge of how little the boys had to look forward to from day to day, while under such depressing influences, first inspired the thought of supplying them with pictures and books.  One of the fist things established was a Sunday evening prayer meeting in Columbia College Hospital, in an upper room in Auntie Pomroy’s ward.  That room was crowded night after night, and over flow meetings were held in a grove nearby.  The interest steadily increased, and the enthusiasm of the soldiers could not be repressed, when Miss Rumsey’s sweet voice stirred their souls, and rekindled the noble self-sacrificing spirit that had brought them to such a place.  The soldiers planned what they wanted her to sing from week to week, and she three into the songs all her great desire to bring the boys to their better selves and help them to feel they were not forgotten and alone. 

Miss Rumsey was the means of founding a Soldier’s Free Library, the first one hundred dollars was given by Mrs. Walter Baker, a greater part of the remainder was earned by Miss Rumsey and Mr. Fowle, giving concerts.

Mr. Fowle and Miss Rumsey, on March 1^st, 1863, were married in the Hall of Representatives, about 4000 being present, the marriage ceremony was performed according to the rights of the Episcopal Church, by the Rev. Mr. Quint, pastor of the church which Mr. Fowle attended in Jamaica Plain, and Chaplain of the 2^nd Mass. REg.

Mr. and Mrs. Fowle now reside in Dorchester, Mass.

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1705

George Lathe Burt (on left) and John H. Burt (on right)

Mr. Burt began business as contractor and builder, in 1850, in company with his brother, John H., and one year later they associated with them another brother, Sumner A., who remained with them until his decease in 1886.  The name of the firm seems to have been J. H. Burt & Co.   Burt Street, laid out in 1897 and running from Washington Street to Ashmont was named for them.

George Burt was a member of the Boston common council, 1870, ’71, ’72 and ’73; member of House of Representatives, 1880, ’81 and ’82; member of state Senate, 1884 and ’85, and trustee of Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association, 1888 and ’89. 

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1704

Earlier this month we saw the Colonial Filling Station on Washington Street. Today we have the Colonial Filling Station at King Square at the point between Adams Street and Neponset Avenue.  You may have to zoom in with your picture viewer.

The Beacon Oil Co. owned and operated the Colonial Filling Stations, and the construction of this station was completed in June of 1923.  The photograph by Paul J. Weber appeared in The Architectural Forum, July, 1926.   Anthony Sammarco has noted that the finial on the building and on top of the pole represent orbits.

The following is from the article accompanying the illustration: Among the many filling stations scattered throughout New England in which Colonial details have been used to make the buildings more consistent architecturally with their environment or more suggestive of the names of the companies owning them, we find this bizarre little building at Dorchester, Mass.

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