The Cambridge of eighteen hundred and ninety-six: a picture of the city and its industries fifty years after its incorporation
Arthur Gilman, Ed.

[397] act of incorporation was accepted. The meeting was called to order by Mr. Hubbard, who was chosen chairman, and the late Dr. Estes Howe was elected clerk pro tempore. The officers elected were: directors, H. H. Stimpson, Willard Phillips, Charles C. Little, and G. G. Hubbard; Estes Howe was elected clerk and treasurer. Of these Mr. Hubbard is now the only living representative. Mr. Stimpson was appointed a committee to procure subscriptions to the capital stock, and Messrs. Little, Hubbard, and Stimpson a committee to arrange the lease with the Cambridge Railroad Company, who were the owners of the corporate right to lay tracks in the streets.

At this time it was hard to find any one who would take stock in any such concern, and the Union Railway Company was incorporated for the purpose of leasing any or all of the tracks of the Cambridge Railroad Company, or of any connecting tracks. Messrs. Hubbard and Stimpson were a committee to confer with the Cambridge omnibus proprietors with reference to the purchase of their property. The committee on cars was Messrs. Hubbard, Stimpson, and William A. Saunders. Adjourned meetings of the company were held, at which no quorum was present. Finally, on the 19th, a meeting was held, and a code of by-laws adopted. When enough of these brave fellows could be brought together, which was seldom, they evidently made them attend to business, for at a protracted meeting on the 27th day of this same month, the long-mooted question of procuring cars was settled, and Mr. Hubbard was appointed a committee to procure five cars from Messrs. Eaton & Gilbert. These were the first purchased by any street railway company in the city of Boston.

Speaking of these cars recalls to my memory that the late Abel Willard, one of the proprietors of the omnibus line, once told me that he, with many others, rode into Boston (not in a car, however) to view the spectacle of one of these same cars coming down Cambridge Street hill. They did not believe that there was power enough in the brakes to hold the car, but that it would run upon and injure the horses, and finally land somewhere in the vicinity of Charles River. A great change came over the party when they saw how nicely everything operated, and “ Uncle Abel” said that from that time he was satisfied that his omnibus line had got to go under.

Meetings of the directors at this time were very frequent, but no business of importance was transacted which would interest the public at this day. The subject which seemed to interest the directors most was the question of purchasing two lots on Lambert [now Huron] Avenue; another subject agitated at this time was the purchase of iron cars—‘electrics’ were not dreamed of in those days. The first president of the company, Mr. H. H. Stimpson, was elected December 6, 1855, and at the same meeting an assessment of twenty-five per centum