He was the master builder of the Boston Mill Dam, of the
Charlestown Dry Dock, of the State prison buildings in Massachusetts
and New Hampshire, of the track of the Lowell railway, which was laid
originally on granite sleepers, and of many jails in New England.
Experience proved that granite sleepers were too firm and sleepers of
wood were substituted.
One of the county commissioners was John K. Going of Shirley. I had
known him from my youth. He was my senior by about ten years. In my
boyhood he called not infrequently at my father's house, driving an
old horse in a second-hand, well worn sulky. His business was trading
in horses and watches, and gambling, as was reported, for small sums of
money. To myself and my brothers he was held up by my mother as a
warning. Before he was twenty-one years of age he had induced his
father to mortgage his small homestead for four hundred dollars which
John lost in unwise or unfortunate ventures. Upon that experience he
began to recover his fortunes. He became a dealer in better horses,
then in hops, then in real estate, and to some extent he became an
operator in Boston markets. At the age of fifty he was worth,
probably, two hundred thousand dollars. With the improvement of his
fortunes, his character improved. He was always temperate and his
agreements were carefully kept.
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