Historic leaves, volume 1, April, 1902 - January, 1903

[16] of the old house, the first floor, is still there, also the ruins of the barn near by. His brickyard adjoined the premises. I was driving in from Medford; having a little business there, I drove across from the turnpike to his dooryard; it was yet early; Fisk in his shirt sleeves, evidently had left the breakfast-table to talk with me just outside his door. While thus engaged one of his men, his coat off, no hat on his head, rushed around the easterly end of the house, throwing his arms wildly about his head, his face white as a sheet, and his eyes bulging with excitement, and shouted, ‘My God! they have killed the President! Abe Lincoln's dead! Shot!’ He ran all the way from Temple street, near Broadway, across lots to tell the sad news. He nearly collapsed after delivering his message. The excitement about that little house was intense, the family, the brickmakers, the teamsters all crowded about us, and stood dazed by the awful intelligence. All day I could hear that terrible cry ringing in my ears. It was the most tragic of anything I ever experienced, and something I can never forget.

When Somerville, in 1842, was incorporated, the names of these brickmakers appear on the assessors' books as in business, presumably upon the turnpike: Edward Cutter, Fitch Cutter, Benjamin Hadley, and Silas Kinsley. There are also recorded that same year as residents of the town, these names that later developed into brickmakers along the same road: Gardner T. Ring, Joseph P. Sanborn, John Sanborn, David Washburn, Benjamin Fisk, Chauncey Holt and William Jaques, so that our sketch in great measure, has to do with some of the originals of Somerville. Sturdy men they were and contributed not a little to the upbuilding of the town.

For many years brickmaking was the great industry along the turnpike. It is estimated that at least twenty million bricks per year were made between the Charlestown line and the Cutter mill. Ten thousand cords of wood alone were teamed over the turnpike yearly, to say nothing of great quantities of sand. Most of the wood was landed from schooners below Malden bridge;