By\u00a0 Elizabeth Lawler {nee Donohoe}; Circa 1980\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Butler School built in 1790 of wood twelve feet wide, 14\nfeet deep, one-story high. No plaster or\nclapboards. It had four small glass\nwindows with wooden shutters. It was used in the summer only. In the winter, pupils were transferred to the\nteacher\u2019s home. The teacher\u2019 salary was $13.00 a month and board for six months\nfor which the district paid $2.00 per week. Then Dorchester crated a new\ndistrict called the western district. It included all the territory to the\nDedham line from a half a mile below Mattapan. \nThis was district number five. Reverend Henry Lyman named Hyde Park in\n1854. He lived on Gordan Avenue at\nAustin Street. He belonged to an organization called the Hyde Park Land\nCompany. Readville was known as the\nDedham Low Plains. The Readville name\nwas not until 1847. It was named after a\nJames Reed who owned the cotton mill. The Sprague Farm was of the Revolutionary\nPeriod, the Donohoe family lived there until 1888. They were the last family to free their\nslaves. The first school in Readville\nwas in 1814. It was at Milton and\nSprague Streets. There were eight to ten\npupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. Army built a hospital at Camp Meigs in 1863. 152048\nmen trained there. They bathed in\nSprague\u2019s Pond. Two hundred structures\nwere built, fifty barracks, stables for 1,000 horses, a prison, a chapel, and a\npumping station on 125 acres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On April 22nd<\/sup> 1868 a bill was approved granting\nthe petition for a Township. Territory\nwas taken from Dedham, Dorchester and Milton, a total of 2800acres which was\nincorporated as the Township of Hyde Park. \nThe Town was named by Reverend Lyman. \nThere were 3,500 people in the new town. Three small schools, one large\nschool, six religious societies, three churches, a cotton mill, a paper mill, a\nwoolen mill, a vice factory, iron works, carshops, and a needle factory. In\n1871 the beginning of the Public Library. 1874 the first Post Office. 1868 First Catholic Church. 1888 first\nCatholic School. Hyde Park taxes were\n$5.00 per thousand. On January 1st<\/sup>\n1912 Hyde Park passed quietly into the hub part of the City of Boston. It was no longer a town. Aa general dissatisfaction with Town water\nrates and service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jackie, the first school was on River Street halfway down to\nMattapan. It was called the Butler\nSchool. There were no railroads at the\ntime. It was during the Civil War where\nthe trained at Camp Meigs, That is over Readville [square] I guess you know\nthat. There was Sprague Pond and part of o river [Neponset] all the way down to\nHyde Park [that ran] right through Readville. \nMy father once told me, the people had to use a boat to get over to\nwhere the factories were. Which later was Hyde Park Avenue. The railroad came in after, I don\u2019t know what\nyear. This is just part of the information I onetime picked up at the library.\nIf I ever get anymore and you are interested, I will see that you get what I\nhave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Signed Love Eliz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By\u00a0 Elizabeth Lawler {nee Donohoe}; Circa 1980\u2019s Butler School built in 1790 of wood twelve feet wide, 14 feet deep, one-story high. No plaster or clapboards. It had four small glass windows with wooden shutters….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-readville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}