History

One of the things that's always struck me as odd about life in Roslindale is the preponderance of Mormon missionaries. Year in and year out, whenever the weather's nice, you see the pairs of strapping young crewcutted white guys in short-sleeve white shirts, wearing ties and dark pants and carrying clipboards as they walk up and down Washington Street looking for potential converts. Why Roslindale? Shouldn't they be in, I dunno, West Africa or Samoa or someplace?

Over on Remember Jamaica Plain, Mark reposts an 1876 article about a time in American history when Boston sent forth missionaries to convert settlers on the frontier, way out in Missouri and Texas (and also lay plans to convert the "ignorant and priest-ridden" masses in Mexico):

Nelson Kingsbury, Esq., the secretary of the New England department of the society, presided, and in the course of an address in which he set forth the general character of the work performed by the society during the past fifty-two years, he said that in that period there had been established by agents and missionaries of the society, principally at the West, 63,793 Bible and Sunday Schools. The total number of pupils represented by these was 2,745,000; teachers 420,000: aid furnished to 7000 destitute scholars; money expended in furnishing such aid, $517,000.

Larry Davidson reads the canard in City Weekly and so points out that the Blake House in Dorchester was actually built at least 30 years before the Revere House. He even posts days and times you can visit the house (and, sadly, adds "It's in a safe part of Dorchester, so don't worry about what you hear about our neighborhoods").

I recently made a mini-documentary about the Alden Shoe factory in Middleborough. Alden is one of the few American footwear companies that still produces shoes in the US. Here's the link to the video and article that appeared in yesterday's Globe. 

Today a one time opportunity for free viewing of the Symbols of Power Napoleon exhibition and all of the Museum of Fine Arts during the Martin Luther King Day open house
http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/sub.asp?key=15&subk...
http://www.mfa.org/napoleon/
http://mfa.org/press

Wear a universalhub symbol of power... Meet other people at the museum who've read the bits of local interest at http://universalhub.com

by Steven Kepnes
REVIEW
Why Should Jews Survive? by Michael Goldberg Read more

It involves Benjamin Franklin and a sum of money he left to the city of Boston, Mark reports.

Mike Ball posts his personal story about the soon-to-be-gone Dunkin' Donuts sign in Brighton. He starts by saying it's better than any you might have about the sign. And after reading it, I have to agree. With a special bonus message for all you people convinced Harvard plans to screw the neighborhood - seems they were doing it even in 1969.

Boston Maggie surveys the mayoral career of Hugh O'Brien, who took office on this day in 1885:

... Popular among both native- and Irish-born Bostonians, Hugh O'Brien paved the way for the better known Irish mayors who would follow him— "HoneyFitz" Fitzgerald and James Michael Curley. ...

J.L. Bell reports on the pre-Revolutionary Boston origins of the modern caucus, with a citation from John Adams's diary:

Boston Feby. 1763. This day learned that the Caucas Clubb meets at certain Times in the Garret of Tom Daws, the Adjutant of the Boston Regiment. He has a large House, and he has a moveable Partition in his Garrett, which he takes down and the whole Clubb meets in one Room.

There they smoke tobacco till you cannot see from one End of the Garrett to the other. There they drink Phlip I suppose, and there they choose a Moderator, who puts Questions to the Vote regularly, and select Men, Assessors, Collectors, Wardens, Fire Wards, and Representatives are Regularly chosen before they are chosen in the Town. ...

The Blog of Henry David Thoreau:

The notes of the wood thrush and the sounds of a vibrating chord, these affect me as many sounds once did often, and as almost all should. The strains of the aolian harp and of the wood are the truest and loftiest preachers that I know now left on this earth. ...

Via Leslie Turek.

No, not in San Francisco this week, but Jamaica Plain 100 years ago. Also, it was a striped tabby, not a Siberian giant:

A big tiger cat, believed to have been affected by rabies, that had recently terrorized the aristocratic neighborhood of Sigourney st and Glen road, Jamaica Plain, was sent to its long sleep yesterday afternoon by revolver shots fired by patrolmen McAdams and Riley. ...

Jay Fitzgerald theorizes on why we're seeing so many gritty Boston Irish mobster movies these days - a last-gasp effort at recalling what is rapidly becoming a bygone era.

J.L. Bell recounts how Boston Harbor almost became the site of the first submarine attack in history.

Settle down, Mitt fans, this isn't about Daniel Tavares. Let's set the Wayback Machine (i.e., the New York Times archive) to Dec. 6, 1907, and see what was going on that day:

Seems John Steele of Everett traveled to the State House in Boston to kill Gov. Curtis Guild. Steele, who blamed Guild personally for his problems, had been released the month before from the Danvers Insane Asylum - at the request of his mother. Ironically, the first doctor to reach the governor's office after the shooting was Owen Copp, chairman of the state Board of Insanity - who had supervised Steele's care in various state institutions for five years.

The next day, the Times condemned Massachusetts officials for releasing a man who, in the Times' opinion, should have been locked away for life.

Not Whitey Bulger reposts an 1873 report on a court hearing on whether a bath house at the pond could stay open despite complaints from residents of nearby estates that they just could not abide knowing men and boys there were swimming in the pond pantsless. The judge ruled against the burghers, citing the urinal case of Rudolph vs. St. George's vestry and especially the pigeon-shooting case of Rex vs. Moore.

J.L. Bell recounts the events of Nov. 24, 1775, when besieged British authorties evacuated several hundred Loyalists to Point Shirley in Winthrop.

The World's Most Boring Tourist Attraction will be put in a box while the portico surrounding it is repaired. A suggestion: Paint a picture of the rock on the outside of the box. Nobody will even notice.

Not Whitey Bulger reposts a report from a 1915 meeting of the Jamaica Plain Anti-Suffrage Association:

... "All of the women that I know who would be of use politically in our State are now working as hard as they can on the boards of institutions, on the boards of charity, in their church work, and last but not least, to my mind, in the much derided home of the modern woman. We feel that our value in public work as nonpartisans is much greater than if we were affiliated with any political party."

You can blame FDR, who moved the holiday in response to business people who wanted a longer Christmas shopping season.

Not Whitey Bulger reprints a letter to the editor of the Globe in 1885 concerning the poor condition of public transit in Jamaica Plain:

On Tuesday morning, having an early call to Boston, I got into a horse car and found that the seats had a wooden back which was covered with frost, and on attempting to take some straw from the floor to protect my back, I found the snow exposed through the holes in the floor. I sat shivering on the edge of the seat until the station at Roxbury was reached where I got out, took the steam cars and found at the Boston Depot a comfortable car of the Highland road to take me to Court street. ...

Not Whitey Bulger recounts when the North End Mission shipped ladies of the evening off to rural Jamaica Plain in an attempt to get them away from:

The temptations of Boston proper, with its docks, warehouses and factories full of laboring men.

He reposts an 1873 Globe article about the opening of a group home near the Hyde Park line:

... The purpose of the home at Mount Hope is to provide a place where the mission may take the fallen women, upon whom it is expending its efforts, where they may be entirely removed from all temptation, and may be able to support themselves by their labor at the needle, in the laundry, or in various duties which the management of a country establishment of such size imposes. It is not proposed to take any women who are not willing to stay at the home for a period of six months, as it is felt that a lasting hold upon them cannot be obtained in any less time. ...

On Remember Jamaica Plain, Not Whitey Bulger recounts an 1899 episode during which a local milkman also delivered typhoid fever on his morning rounds:

... The wife of the milkman died of typhoid fever last week, and while sick and on her feet attended to the various duties of the milk farm, the washing of cans, etc. The drain from the sink and the outhouse was into the cellar of the barn, where about two feet of water was found, and a very short distance from the barn was an old well, the water of which was not good enough to drink, but which, it is stated, was used to wash the milk cans. ...

J.L. Bell describes her investing ways.