Eagle Feathers #280 –Somerville Firsts

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Memorial Day is an American federal holiday which honors those who died while serving in the United States military. It always falls on the last Monday in May creating a three-day weekend and unofficially launches us into June and the beginning of summer.

This opens the season of warm sun and vacationing in Massachusetts. It commences with a break from studies for local students and those who come here from around the country and the world. There are more than fifty colleges and universities within the Boston and the Route 128 loop. Many students stay for the summer while numerous families visit and tour the area.

How would you boast of historic Somerville which is located adjacent to Boston, often referred to as the Hub of the Universe? Here are some brags, crows, swaggers and vaunts that you might want to bluster about our historic town.

1. The first ship built in Massachusetts, The Blessing of the Bay, was launched on the Fourth of July in 1631 and was the forerunner of our American Navy.
2. The first governor of Massachusetts was John Winthrop who lived on Ten Hills.
3. The first governor of Connecticut was his son, John Winthrop, Jr., who brought iron making to America.
4. The first state hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, began on Cobble Hill.
5. The first mansion built by Charles Bulfinch was the Barrell Mansion on Cobble Hill.
6. The first Civil War Memorial in the country was built with public funds and was erected in the Somerville cemetery.
7. The first outside telephone line went from Court Street in Boston to the home of Charles Williams at One Arlington Street in Somerville.
8. America’s first millionaire, Elias Hasket Derby, lived on Temple Street and Derby Street honors him.
9. Somerville’s Marine Corps Sergeant Henry Hanson helped raise the first American flags at Iwo Jima.
10. The first Revolutionary forts used to oppose the British Army, seven in total, were built here.
11. The Battle of Lexington and Concord began at Lexington but ended in today’s Somerville.
12. Nathan Hale, America’s first intelligence officer-spy and one of the army’s first rangers, trained on Winter Hill.
13. Last of all on this partial list, but first in the eyes of our nation, honors a man who would lead America to freedom. General George Washington raised the first thirteen striped American Flag on Prospect Hill and years later won our country’s independence. He later became our first president.

George Washington … first in war … first in peace … and first in the eyes of our countrymen.