Newhall Cheever, 1788-1878
No. 24335 Portrait of Cheever Newhall owned by Massachusetts Horticultural Society
John and Cheever Newhall were born in Lynn, Massachusetts. Under the name, Cheever Newhall and Company, they owned and operated shoe factories in eastern Massachusetts and retail outlets in Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1824, Cheever purchased a house with extensive grounds on the north side of Ashmont Street, nearly opposite Carruth Street, approximately where the Dorchester Calvary Baptist Church now stands. John Newhall purchased property near the intersection of Ashmont and Adams streets. Another brother, George, who worked with John and Cheever, purchased land in northern Dorchester.
Cheever became a director of the Shoe and Leather Bank. He was a founder of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and was its treasurer from 1829 to 1832 and vice-president from 1840 to 1858.
In their Transactions in 1901, The Massachusetts Horticultural Society mentioned Newhall and his property: His homestead lot was perhaps of twenty-five acres, lying on the northerly side of the present Ashmont Street, and stretching towards Adams Street. Here he had flourishing orchards, principally of pear trees, of which there were several hundred.
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, (Boston, MA: Privately printed, 1901), 177.
Cheever Newhall owned and cultivated extensive farming tracts in Dorchester, towards one hundred acres in all. His homestead lot was perhaps of twenty-five acres, lying on the northerly side of the present Ashmont Street, and stretching towards Adams Street. Here he had flourishing orchards, principally of pear trees, of which there were several hundred. He was a man of enterprise and public spirit.
No. 24337 1874 atlas showing Cheever Newhall’s land near Ashmont Street.
Tamara Plakins Thornton. Cultivating Gentlemen The Meaning of Country Life among the Boston Elite, 1785-1860. (New Haven, 1989.
Newhall purchased his Dorchester farm in 1824 and spent summers there until his death. Of the estate’s sixty acres, a few remained wooded, a few were devoted to ornamental landscaping, eight to ten were given over to fruit culture, and the remaining sustained twenty-five cows, eighteen to twenty hogs, one bull, four oxen and three horses. Apples and pears were Newhall’s pomological specialties, but he cultivated cherries, plums and grapes as well. He was a founder and officer of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and an early member of the American Pomological Society. When it came to animal husbandry, Newhall employed the latest scientific techniques. Thus his cattle were soiled, not pasture-fed,; swine were kept mainly for the creation of fertilizer; and the farm buildings, such as his two-story hoghouses, were designed with cleanliness nd efficiency I mind. Newhall showed great resourcefulness in his management of the farm; he fertilized his land with hogsheads of urine collected from several Boston hotels. He belonged to the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, the Norfolk Agricultural Society, and the Massachusetts Agricultural Club. [”Farming in Massachusetts,” The Cultivator, n.s., 2 (January 1845): 22-23; New England Historical and Genealogical Register 32 (October 1878): 430-431; Marshall Pinckney Wilder, “Horticulture of Boston,” in Justin Winsor. Memorial History of Boston, (Boston, 1881), volume 4, 619.]
Necrology New England Historical and Genealocical Register 1878
Cheever Newhall, Esq., of Boston ,a resident member, was born in Lynn, Mass., March 12, 1788; died in Boston, Dorchester District April 8, 1878, aged90 years, 26 ds.. He was educated in the public school of Lynn, and, October 14, 1802, entered the store of Samuel Hammond & Co., Boston. In 1809, he began the shoe and leather business on his own account on what is now Washington Street. In 1812, he removed to the site occupied by the “sears Building,” where, as a jobber of boots and shoes, his business extended as far as Detroit and St. Louis, Charleston, S.C. and Savannah, Ga. In 1822, Mr. Eveleth became his partner, under the firm of Newhall & Eveleth. In 1825, on account of poor health, he sold his interest to the firm of Eveleth & Wood and was out of business until 1829, when he associated with his brother, John Mansfield Newhall, under the firm of Cheever Newhall & Co.., a partnership which lasted for over twenty years. During that time, they had factories at East Abington, East Stoughton, Newburyport and other places for the manufacture of boots and shoes, and established branches of their house at New Orleans and Mobile. Mr. Newhall was, for several years, a director of the Shoe and Leather Bank and was also the oldest member living of the New England Guards. In 1824, he purchased extensive grounds and a large house on Ashmont Street, Dorchester, for summer use (boarding at the Revere House during the winter months) until 1855 or ’6, when his house was totally destroyed by fire. This house was the birthplace of Motley, the historian, A new house was erected on the same site, in which Mr. Newhall resided until his death. From 1824 until the present year, he has been identified with the agricultural and horticultural interests of the community and was greatly interested in the science of husbandry. Soon after his removal to Dorchester, he became a member of the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and of the Norfolk County Society. He was one of the founders and charter members of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and held the office of Treasurer from 1829 to 1832, and that of Vice-President from 1840 to 1858. He was also one of the most prominent and active members of the Massachusetts Agricultural Club, the Presidency of which he held from the date of its organization till his decease. On the 13th of March 1878, (the 90th anniversary of his birth), a complimentary dinner was given Mr. Newhall by the members of the Club, at which his intimate friend, so long united with him by kindred tastes in the beautiful and useful, the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, presided. Mr. Newhall was one of the earliest members of the American Pomological Society, one of the founders of the Norfolk Agricultural Society and continued to take a lively interest in all those organizations. In 1816 , he married Anne, daughter of Richard C. Beale of Quincy, and granddaughter of Rev. Dr. Sellon, London, England. Having no children, they adopted, at the age of one year, an orphan niece, now the wife of Eugene Ely of Elizabeth, N.J.
He became a member October 8, 1875.
The Cultivator January 1845
“Farming in Massachusetts”
The farm of Cheever Newhall, Esq in Dorchester, six miles from Boston, furnishes one of the best examples of productive husbandry, we have any where met with. It consists of sixty acres, a few of which are still in wood. Several acres are taken up by the grounds about the house in garden, shrubbery, &c., and there are eight or ten acres in orcharding; yet the farm supports twenty-five cows, one bull, four oxen, and three horses. All this stock is supported entirely from the farm, with the exception of a few oats occasionally for the carriage-horses, and some wheat bran for the cows.
The soil was originally very strong and some of it wet.
Soiling. Mr. Newhall keeps his stock altogether on the soiling system. They are fed mostly in the barn at all season of the year. The cows are turned out for a few hours in each day, when the weather will admit of it, and are driven for exercise to a small, shaded enclosure, about a quarter of a mile from the barn. They are perfectly healthy, and Mr. N. thinks give quite as much, if not more, milk, in the course of the year, as they would do if grazed in summer in the ordinary way. The cows average 420 gallons per year, and the milk is sold at the arm at an average of about fourteen cents per gallon.
The principal articles for feeding, in the summer season, are rye and Indian corn, cut green. The former is sown in the fall and is the first thing that is fit to cut in the spring. It may be commenced on as soon as it Is high enough to mow, and will continue to grow till the usual time that rye matures, by which time, the corn which is most relied on, is fit to use. Corn is the most productive of fodder of any crop which can be grown. The past season, Mr. N. kept. twenty-three cows for eight weeks, wholly from two acres and a half of corn. He is confident that one acre of rich land is more than sufficient to keep a cow the year round—that is, it will afford sufficient green food in summer, and leave enough to be dried to keep the cow through the winter. In 1843, Mr. Newhall measured a square rod, being part of a lot of corn sown for fall and winter use, and carefully weighted the produce, which he found to be a the rate of more than thirty-two tons per acre. It was then carefully dried when it weighed 160 lbs. to the rod, or nearly thirteen tons to the acre. He prefers planting in the drill mode, three feet apart and uses two to three bushels of seed (of the southern corn) per acre. Large quantities of carrots, potatoes and beets are grown for winter feeding. The white carrot is the kind most cultivated—it is easier raised than other sorts and generally yields better—giving from 800 to 1000 bushels per acre. Each cow is fed during winter, with from a peck to a half-bushell of roots per day, with a little wheat bran, in addition to their dry fodder.
Making Manure. Much attention is given to this branch of farming operations. The manure from the attle and horses is pushed through scuttles into the cellar under the barn, and a layer of peat muck thrown over it three or four times a week. The barn-yard is so formed that none of the manure is wasted. Much manure is also made from hogs, eighteen or twenty of which are kept principally for this purpose. They are fed with the waste of public houses, &c., brought from Boston—on which food they get very fat. The pork covers all the expense of keeping, leaving the manure clear gain. The hogs are kept with a full supply of marsh mud, peat, &c., which being rooted over and mixed with their excrements becomes good manure. The pens are mostly under roofing. We noticed a contrivance about the sties which we do not remember to have seen before, except on the farm of J. W. Haines, in Hallowell, Maine. The sty consists of an upper and a lower story, and the hogs resort to either as they find most conducive to their comfort and convenience, by means of an inclined plane across which cleats are fastened to answer the purpose of steps and too keep the hogs from slipping down. The upper story, wich is always dry, is generally used by the hogs for a bed-chamber—their workis done below, and in very hot weather, the go there to cool their bodies in the moist earth.
Besides availing himself of all the means of making manure from his stock, Mr. Newhall has another manufactory which is of great importance. From some large vats which have been provided at several of the large hotels in Boston, he obtains annually about sixty hogsheads of urine. The mod of using this is to make into compost with peat-muck. The muck is kept in the barn cellar, and the vehicle in which the urine is brought is driven into the barn, and the liquid is conducted by means of pipesto the muck below. Each hogshead of urine is sufficient to saturate a cord of much, which is thus made—as experience has amply proved—of more valuethan the same quantity of any other manure used on the farm.
Buildings. All the buildings are convenient and well and substantially made. The barn, (of which we hope to give a cut hereafter,) is on e of the best we have seen. It is 120 feet long and 40 feet wide. The floor runs through the whole length, leaving the bay on one side and the stalls for cattle and horses on the other. The cattle stand on a platform raised a few inches from the floor, and slightly sloping backwards and of such a length that the manure drops off behind it;’ by which means the cattle are kept clean and dry. Between the manger from which the cattle eat and the platform on which they stand is the watering-trough, which runs through all the stalls. here the stock, whenever it is desired, are watered from a pump which is placed at one end of the barn. We omitted to mention, in our notice of Mr. French’s farm last month, that his cattle are also watered in the same manner.
There is a deep cellar under the whole barn, a portion of which serves for the safe-keeping and manufacture of manure as already described, and the remainder as a store-house for vegetables. The space assigned for vegetables is divided into stalls or bins, arranged along one side of an alley for the convenience of taking out the roots. There are scuttles in the barn floor, through which the vegetables are dropped directly from carts into the bins. The barn doors are made to slide on iron rails, instead of being hung on hinges. This is a plan which has prevailed considerably in Massachusetts for a few years past, and we think preferable to any we have seen. The door rests on cast-iron wheels, which run on the rail The rails are cast with a small ridge in the centre, and the wheels with a corresponding groove. Thus the door keeps its exact place without any trouble, and runs very easily.
Fences. From the system pursued with his stock, (soiling) Mr. Newhall has need of but few interior fences. Those required are heavy walls—the stones for which are found on the farm, and they were formerly in so great abundance that it was necessary to dig them out before the land could be tilled.
Sowing Grass Seed. Mr. Newhall decidedly prefers the fall for sowing grass seed. He thinks August too early for sowing on his farm, as there is sometimes a drought after this time in the year which kills the young grass. He has been very successful in late sowing. He showed us a beautiful piece of sward which was sowed down on the seventh of October, 1843; and the past year he has sown still later. We think so late sowing succeeds better n his gravelly soil, than it would do on clay land, or that which is more liable to be thrown by frost.
Fruit trees. Fruit, particularly apples and pears, is a considerable object on this farm. Besides having an abundance for home-consumption, three hundred dollars worth were sold the past year, among which were eight barrels of Bartlett pears, which brought fifty dollars. Mr. Newhall has a large collection of cherries, plums, grapes and the smaller fruits. He showed us some of the finest Isabella and Catawb grapes we have met with in this latitude. Several of his pears are also very fine. We were shown specimens of Beurre Diel, Seckel, St. Germain, Napoleon, &c., which were excellent
Mr. Newhall showed us a lot of pear trees imported from France and Germany, grafted on quince stocks, and cultivated at the distance of only four by five feet apart. The trees are kept trimmed in the shape of a distaff—what is called in France the Quenouille form—a mode which we are told succeeds well with these dwarf stocks. The trees are brought very early to bearing, and it is said as much, as good fruit is obtained I this way for a given extent of land, as by standard planting. though none of the dwarf trees are as long-lived as those grafted in their own species and cultivated in the usual manner.
Remarks. Comment on the above facts seems scarcely necessary, yet we cannot omit to call attention to the great amount of products which Mr. Newhall obtains compared with many farms containing hundreds of acres each. Here is a farm of only sixty acres, which, besides affording three hundred dollars worth of fruit annually and leaving a large portion of it for merely ornamental grounds, supports more stock than most farms of twice or thrice its extent. A striking example is here furnished of the fallacy of the ideas that agriculture cannot be prosecuted to any extent or advantage without a large farm.
William Dana Orcutt. Good Old Dorchester (Cambridge, 1893), 451.
Cheever Newhall was the first treasurer of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and a distinguished cultivator. On his estates he had extensive orchards which embraced a large number of varieties, especially of the pear, which he cultivated with great success up to the time of his death, in 1880. Mr. Newhall’s place was once the residence of Thomas Motley, father of the historian, John Lothrop Motley, and of his brother Thomas Motley, the president of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, who were here born.