Kenrick family made Newton blossom and left a legacy to the needy

Every year about this time the City of Newton has a small amount of money to distribute among the most needy of its residents. The total amount, which now varies between three and five hundred dollars, is the interest accruing to a fund established by John Kenrick Esq. in the first half of the nineteenth century

The first John Kenrick (1605-1686) came to Cambridge Village (now Newton) in 1658. The 250 acres he bought along the Charles in Newton Highlands covered much of what is now the Newton at 128 Industrial Park, the Jewish Community Center and Nahanton Park. The homestead was near the river and he (or his sons) were probably responsible for the first structure across it on, or near, the site of what is still known as Kenrick’s Bridge. Similarly, the present Nahanton Street was a private way through their property until 1711, when it was surveyed by the town.

John Kenrick of the Fund (1755-1833) was the great-great-grandson of the original settler. In 1780 he married Mehitable Meriam, daughter of Newton’s fourth Minister, and shortly thereafter left the Highlands, and moved to a ninety-four-acre farm near Newton (then Angier’s) Corner that he bought from Edward Durant. The house, built by Durant’s father, another Edward in 1732, still stands on Waverley Avenue. Although privately owned, it is open to the public at certain times.

John Esq. served Newton as a selectman for two years, as Representative to the General Court for seven, was active in the Temperance movement and, as recorded on his tomb in the old cemetery on Centre Street, being "impressed with the unlawfulness, impiety, and inhumanity of slavery....he stove long and unassisted to awaken his countrymen to the subject...." a founder and "liberal contributor to "the first anti-slavery society in the country" (the New England, later the Massachusetts, Anti-Slavery Society, he was its second president.

In 1825, to quote from the History of Newton, by his contemporary, Francis Jackson, "he made a donation of one thousand dollars; soon after, he made other donations amounting in all to seventeen hundred dollars, with a view to laying the foundation of a permanent fund, from which many be annually drawn, aid and relief for the needy, and industrious poor of his native town; to be placed in the hands of the Selectmen as Trustees, to be loaned out, and the interest added to the principal, until it shall amount to the sum of four thousand dollars...." after which the annual income was "to be distributed yearly, though all succeeding generations...."

The $4,000 target was reached in 1851, since when the Fund "has been doing its wholesome and benevolent work". In 1874, when Newton became a city, "the custody, care and management" of the fund were transferred to the Board of Aldermen. Recently, these responsibilities were delegated to the Department of Human Services.

Meanwhile, John Esq. indulged his interest in horticulture and whit in a decade the property of Nonantum (now Farlow) Hill had become "the first nursery of much importance" in New England, known initially for peach trees "raised from the stone" and subsequently for other fruit trees as well. His interest was passed on to his sons, William (1789-1871) and John A. (1801-1870) both of whom became nurserymen. John A. (not to be confused with his son, another John A., who served as city treasurer in the closing years of the century) was cited by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for his roses, honeysuckles, peonies, scotch broom and spireas among other plants and shrubs. A founding member of the Society William, too, won prizes for floraculture, but was recognized particularly for "procuring scions of new fruit trees from Europe" and for the publication in 1832 of The New American Orchardist. (The Jackson Homestead owns a second edition, 1835.)

In the early 1840s William became interested in raising silkworms and invested in a mulberry plantation in the south. The venture failed and to recoup his finances he took advantage of the demand for new homes that followed the introduction of regular commuter rail service between Newton and Boston, and developed part of his property as Wood Land Vale, Newton’s fourth suburban sub-division. Designed by Alexander Wadsworth, the surveyor associated with Mt. Auburn Cemetery, it is now known as Kenrick Park, and is, perhaps, the most visible element of the family’s legacy to Newton.

Historic Newton/The Jackson Homestead and Museum A department of the City of Newton, Setti D. Warren, Mayor Cynthia S. Stone, Director Questions or comments: Email © 2003 Historic Newton