News

Fairview Cemetery  in Hyde Park was established in 1892 and is a wonderful place to wander for exercise, nature and history. The Friends of the Hyde Park Library and the Hyde Park Historical Society have prepared a self guided  tour of gravesites and monuments of interest. The decision to do this developed from interest generated by the fund raising project to purchase a grave stone for Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the 1st Black women physician in the US. (1864).   You can learn about this successful Crumpler Fund  project at friendshplibrary.org.

Learn about some of the people buried in Fairview Cemetery by downloading  this  self guided tour.

FC_Tour-Map               

Seaman W. Hughson Royal Naval Reserves. Born in Scotland. Died of the Spanish Flu aboard ship in 1918. Listed in the Commonwealth (countries) War Graves Commission. 

Rebecca Crumpler (1831-1895) The 1st Black woman physician in the U.S. In 1884 wrote A Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts. 

Arthur Crumpler (1835-1910) Escaped from slavery in Virginia. Perpetual student, church activist and HP landowner since 1870. 

Adolph Robert Kraus (1850-1901) German American sculptor known for the Boston Massacre Memorial on the Boston Common and monuments (Randidge, Wirth, Heinzen) in Forest Hills Cemetery.

 Emma Thomas Bond (1846-1926) Enslaved in VA. Moved North in 1870. Matriarch of Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family 1846-1926 by Adele Logan Alexander (1999). 

USS Maine Memorial This plaque was made from metal salvaged from the ship that was destroyed in Havana Harbor on 2/15/1898, shortly before the start of Spanish-American War. 

Joseph King Knight (1849-1927) President MA Dental Assoc. Major role on the building committees for the Congregational Church (1910), the Civil War monument (1911) and the HP railroad station (1914). 

John Robert Bond (1846-1905) Biracial teenager from Liverpool, enlisted in the Union Navy. Active in HP and the veteran’s community. His family were friends with the Crumplers and the Trotters.

Civil War Monument (1911) MH Mosman’s walking figure is quite different from the usual uniformed, solemn standing soldier. 

Amos Brainard (1824-1905) Brainard Milling Machine Co. Owner of many manufacturing patents. The 1st president of the HPHS. 

John Joseph Enneking (1841-1916) Born in Ohio, wounded in the Civil War (Union). Studied fine art painting in Boston and alongside Monet and Renoir in France. Described as the first successful American Impressionist painter. Known for his New England landscapes and richly painted atmospheric sunsets. 

Charles F. Jenney (1835-1900) Lawyer, judge, HP library trustee and Founder of the HP Historical Society.

David Higgins (1828-1897) Born in PEI, Canada. Served with the 6th Mass. Inf. Reg. Built many of the first homes on Fairmount Hill. His parlor on Fairmount Avenue was the 1st neighborhood classroom. 

Thomas M. Menino (1942-2014) Five Term Mayor of Boston from 1993 to 2014. A lifelong resident of HP and known as the People’s Mayor and Urban Mechanic. Author of Mayor for a New America. 

Gertrude S. Galloupe (1897-1984) Born in Sweden. US Navy Reserve Yeoman(F) at the Boston Navy Yard during WWI. 

Flora D. Holtham (1885-1918) Died on the SS City of Athens struck by a French cruiser in dense fog on route from NY to Savannah. O Olive Gertrude Homans (1879-1899) Child actress lived on Gordon Avenue in HP. Best known for her role as Little Lord Fauntleroy. 

William Henry Barritt (1848-1920) Portrait photographer and documenter of HP’s history. Photographs on HPHS website. 

James Monroe Trotter (1842-1892) Born enslaved, grew up in freedom. Officer in 55th Mass. Inf. Reg. Teacher, postal worker, music historian and HP landowner. In 1887 was appointed Recorder of Deeds for Washington DC, by President Grover Cleveland. 

William Monroe Trotter (1872-1934) Grew up in HP. At Harvard he was the 1st Black to receive Phi Beta Kappa honors. Co-founder/editor of the Boston Guardian. An activist for equality and social justice. 

Geraldine Pindell Trotter (1872-1918) Born into Boston’s Black upper class. A civil rights activist, editor, and philanthropist. 

Brigadier General Henry Beebee Carrington (1824-1912). Helped organize the Republican Party in 1854. Union officer in the Civil War. Commander of the Mountain District during Red Cloud’s War. He was a lawyer, professor, and the author of Washington the Soldier and Battle Maps and Charts of the American Revolution. 

                           If you visit this Spring you will see daffodils at most of these graves and at a few others. This is the 1st year we’d planted bulbs, donated by the City of Boston, to brighten up and beautify the city. Hopefully the bulbs survived the winter and the squirrels.

NBC Boston report on a vacant plot of land in Hyde Park which is the location where the 54th Regiment trained 160 years ago. Today, a development proposal is in place to build townhomes on the land, some are fighting to preserve it.

On the morning of Saturday, November 16, 2019, the Grimke Sisters Bridge dedication ceremony was held. The speakers were introduced by Tania Del Rio, executive director of women’s advancement in Mayor Walsh’s administration:

Mayor Marty Walsh (3min 40s)
City Councillor Tim McCarthy (10min)
Barbra Lee, Founder and President, Barbara Lee Family Foundation (14min 10sec)
Catherine Allgor, President, Massachusetts Historical Society (19min 55sec)
Elisa Birdseye, Curator, Hyde Park Historical Society (26min 25sec)

The full video of the ceremony is below. 

On Saturday, November 16th, Boston mayor Marty Walsh will dedicate the rebuilt Dana Ave bridge as the Grimke Sisters bridge – https://www.boston.gov/calendar/grimke-sisters-bridge-dedication.

The Society would like to thank its curator, Elisa Birdseye, for her efforts to promote the renaming of the bridge, including the following letter she wrote for the Society.

And thanks to Michelle Jenney, president of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, for the supporting letter.

Barbara Baxter was a curator and long time member of the Hyde Park Historical Society.  She was engaged with just about all of the civic organizations in Hyde Park. Barbara worked hard to preserve the neighborhood atmosphere of the community and she single-handedly kept alive institutions which would have faded away without her involvement.

Barbara was a likeable soul who is sorely missed. Her friends and acquaintances will gather at the new Barbara Baxter Memorial Garden near the Martini Shell on Truman Highway at 2 PM on May 4th, for a dedication ceremony.

By Tom Sullivan

Six years in the making, James Walker’s twenty-foot long The Battle of Gettysburg debuted in Boston on March 14, 1870, but currently resides in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Commissioned by John Badger Bachelder, The Battle of Gettysburg captivated American audiences with its attention to detail and perceived veracity. Erin detailed the biography of the painting from its inception to its current location and all permutations in between.

Bachelder was a Hyde Park resident from 1880, until his death in 1894. Erin described Bachelder as the P. T. Barnum of the American Civil War – with his great showmanship and commercialization of the painting.

Collection on Display

In honor of Erin Corrales-Diaz’s presentation, the Gettysburg Cannon was on display for our members to view. The cannon was awarded to Hyde Park’s John Badger Bachelder for his work as the official historian of the Battle of Gettysburg – Read more.

The newly restored painting – A View of Camp Meigs from Fairmount Hill by Thomas Badger, 1863, was also displayed and the Society hopes to sell prints of this painting at a later date. Please contact the Society to register interest at info@hydeparkhistoricalsociety.org.

Hyde Park, Massachusetts 1890 Map – This famous map of 1890 shows all the buildings of the town in amazing detail. These prints are just $10 each. Proceeds from the sale will fund the cost of restoring the Badger Painting. To purchase a print please email info@hydeparkhistoricalsociety.org

In 1968, the centennial celebration of the towns first 100 years saw the publication of this 72 page commemorative large format book.

The front cover illustration depicts the town with the completed I-95 Southwest Expressway. Following protests from citizens in Dedham, Milton, Hyde Park, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, the construction of this eight lane highway was cancelled. The Wake up the Earth (WUTE) festival, held every year in Jamaica Plain, was created to celebrate this community victory.

The book also reveals how heavy industry was still prominent in Hyde Park, with a full page advert for the Tilseton & Hollingsworth paper mill, “the most modern, progressive paper mill in all New England…”

This collection includes the scanned images of every page and can be viewed here. The digitization of the text will be available soon.