No. 5195 James Boies House, painting on brick.
Edward A. Huebener, a former Board member of the Dorchester Historical Society, was a collector of materials relating to Dorchester history including a very large collection of graphic materials, including prints and photographs, now owned by the Society. His very own contribution to this group of materials was the idea of taking a brick from a house that had been demolished and asking a local illustrator to paint a picture of the house upon the brick. The painted bricks may be viewed at the Dorchester Historical Society.
No. 3947 The James Boies House is pictured in Dorchester Old and New, 1630-1930. James Boies, who led the Dorchester teamsters to Dorchester Heights in 1776, lived in the house at the right.
The house was located near Mattapan Square, possible even south of the river.
The following is from Neponset River Reservation Master Plan
https://www.mass.gov/doc/chapter2pdf-0/download
“Throughout the years a number of dams were constructed along the river in various locations for the purpose of harnessing the river’s power to operate the mills. ‘During the time period of the Revolution, Neponset Village was a major industrial center” (Hamilton 1957). A dam called the upper dam was constructed just upstream from Plymouth Road and the lower dam was located just below the bridge. About this same time, the dam in Mattapan was flourishing with a mill and a second dam called the Sumner Dam was constructed a little upstream from where Brush Hill Road swings away from the Neponset. “In 1793 Jeremiah Smith Boies, grandson of Jeremiah Smith, built a new dam about halfway between Mattapan and Central Avenue, while Daniel Vose and John Capen built another a sort distance below it. A bitter lawsuit resulted. Boies moved his dam upstream a little to a point opposite the end of today’s Capen Street…’ (Hamilton 1957).”
The following is from the 1859 History of Dorchester:
July 4th, 1811, an incorporated company, styled the Dorchester Cotton and Iron Company, purchased the privilege of Mr. Boies, and immediately commenced putting up a cotton-mill–intending, at a future day, to add a mill for turning and finishing up iron to be used in machinery. Mr. Boies was appointed agent of the company. As soon as the building was completed and the machinery in, the company commended the manufacture of cotton cloth. From the first their business was successful, proving a paying concern to its owners, and a blessing to the community around them, as it furnished much work for the women and children in the neighboring towns during the stagnation of business in the war of 1812. The cotton, at that time, was delivered at the mill to such as chose to take it home and cleanse it from its seeds and other foreign substance. It was then returned, and carded and spun. The yarn was then taken around in the neighboring towns, and wove by hand in families–about eight cents a yard being paid for the weaving. …
Boies resigned in January, 1822, and Enoch Baldwin took his place.