The Burning of Chelsea by Walter Merriam Pratt

Before relating the story of THE BURNING OF CHELSEA it seems that a slight sketch of the history of the city may be appropriate. Thousands of people read, with mingled interest and horror, newspaper accounts of the burning of Chelsea, who had previously only heard of the city in a casual way, perhaps in connection with the unfair and time-worn expression, "Dead as Chelsea. " Few people who have not made a study of the matter realize how much Chelsea stands for in history. To quote from a speech made by the late historian, Judge Mellen Chamberlain, L. L. D., at the laying of the corner-stone of the Prattville Schoolhouse, the city is associated with more really "first things" than any other city of this State or continent.

The first settler, Samuel Maverick, landed on the shore of what are now the United States Naval Hospital grounds in 1624. In 1625 he built a fortified house near the water's edge, which, according to the historical tablet, erected near Chelsea Bridge, was the first house in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Here Governor Winthrop was entertained in 1630. In 1631 the first ferry in the country was established here, the landing being near the present pier on the government grounds, where the first county road in the colony, ending at Salem, began. There is a story to the effect that Maverick's house was attacked by the Indians, but being completely repulsed, they never attacked again. Maverick traded with the Indians, and in this way acquired some five thousand acres of land, comprising what is now Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop, and Saugus, then known as Winnisimmet.