End of the Town of Roxbury."

There are differing opinions as to the origin of the present name; some
have so far reflected upon our colonial ancestors as to intimate that a
decided fondness for Jamaica rum suggested it, and it is doubtless true
that the punch bowl had other uses than to be simply ornamental on the
sideboards of our grandsires. Others, however, believe that it was given
to commemorate Cromwell's acquisition of the island of Jamaica, in 1670,
which secured to Boston numerous very valuable products. There seems, to
us, to be a peculiar appropriateness to the name, as it signified in
Indian "Isle of Springs," because if the brooks and springs which abound
here, making the land verdant and fertile. If we cannot to-day boast of
grand and stately castles, reared in the olden time, as in the mother
country, with guarding moats and bastions, loopholes for crossbows and
guns, -- silent testimonials of opulence and power, -- we yet can bring
to view pictures of many a dwelling, gray and brown with weather stains
and lichens and folds of ivy, which have held within their walls of oak
and cedar people and events whose records thrill our hearts with
patriotic pride or affectionate reverence.

In early times our village was chiefly an agricultural community, and the
cultivation of fruits and vegetables for the city supply was the
specialty; but here and there were elegant countryseats occupied by
government officials, professional and literary men, and city merchants.
Some of these homes and people we hope to see, by favoring records and
memory's aid, this afternoon.

Until within a short time, near the Boylston Station, stood a very
ancient building, with a pitched roof in the rear sloping nearly to the
ground, known as the "Curtis Homestead." It is claimed that this was one