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those struggles ended; and although each may have had a natural desire to make his own particular dwelling-place pleasant and convenient, and may have cherished a generous spirit of rivalry, yet all had a common pride in the reputation of the whole town, and desired the prosperity of all its institutions.
In the midst of this general harmony and peace, a desire for a division of the town was unexpectedly manifested by a portion of the residents in Old Cambridge, who presented to the General Court a petition, dated Dec. 15, 1842, as follows:—
To the
Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The undersigned inhabitants of the westerly part of
Cambridge, being that part of the town usually called Old Cambridge, respectfully represent,—
That, in consequence of the rapid increase of population in those parts of the town being nearest to Boston, and called Cambridgeport and East Cambridge, the town in fact consists of three distinct and separate communities, which are generally known to the public by those names, and each of which has a Post Office recognized in the United States Laws by the said names of Cambridge, Cambridgeport, and East Cambridge; That the time cannot be far distant, when a division of the town, for the convenience of elections and other municipal purposes, will be deemed as necessary as it ever has been at any former period of its history, when the towns of Newton, Lexington, Brighton and West Cambridge were successively separated from the parent town of Cambridge.
Your petitioners believe that the present is a favorable time for an amicable division of the town, and they therefore respectfully pray that the town of Cambridge may be divided, and that that part thereof lying westerly of Lee Street and a line drawn in the direction of said street northerly to the boundary line of Somerville, and southerly to Watertown Turnpike, and by said Turnpike to Charles River, may be incorporated as a distinct town, by the name of Cambridge.
Legislative action was postponed until the next General Court, when a supplementary petition was presented, identical with the former, with slight verbal changes, except that the name “Old Cambridge” was proposed instead of “
Cambridge.”
The customary order of notice on both petitions was issued, requiring the town to show.
cause why it should not be divided, and the inhabitants assembled Jan. 22, 1844: at which meeting it is recorded, that
The subject of the second article in the warrant
