From that time the growth of the city has been rapid.  In 1860, there were 13,395 inhabitants; in 1870, 18,547; in 1880, 21,785; to-day there are probably 24,000.  The Honorable Hosea Ilsley was the second mayor; he was succeeded by the Honorable Frank B. Fay, in 1861; by the Honorable Eustace C. Fitz, in 1864; by the Honorable Rufus S. Frost, in 1867; by the Honorable James B. Forsyth, M.D., in 1869; by the Honorable John W. Fletcher, in 1871; by the Honorable Charles H. Ferson, in 1873; by the Honorable Thomas Green, in 1876; by the Honorable Isaac Stebbins, in 1877; by the Honorable Andrew J. Bacon, in 1879; by the Honorable Samuel P. Tenney, in 1881; by the Honorable Thomas Strahan, the present mayor, in 1883.

[Illustration:  FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.]

In 1849, the railway connected Chelsea with Boston, and in 1857 the horse-cars commenced running.

During the Rebellion, Chelsea responded loyally for troops.  In the Union army there were sixteen hundred and fifty-one soldiers from Chelsea.  Of that number, forty-two were killed in battle; sixteen died of wounds; seventy-five died in hospitals; nine died in Rebel prisons; besides one hundred and four who were more or less seriously wounded.  The city also furnished one hundred and thirty-seven recruits for the navy during the war.  The city has commemorated those heroes who died for their country, by a very appropriate monument in Union Park.

The conservative character of the political fathers of the city may be judged by the fact that Samuel Bassett, who was first elected town clerk in 1849, has served the town and city continuously in that capacity to the present time.  For the half-century before his election there had been only three incumbents of the office.

[Illustration:  Jonathan Bosson’s house.  Deacon Loring’s house.  EPISCOPAL CHURCH.  Present site of D. & L. Slade’s grain store; burned just after the late war.]

The efforts of the land company, who fostered the early growth of the city, were directed to induce people doing business in Boston to select homesteads in Chelsea; but manufacturing was gradually introduced, until to-day many important industries have become established, which have given the place a world-wide reputation.  Chief among these are the works of the Magee Furnace Company.  Their buildings occupy a lot of several acres, fronting on Chelsea River.  Here the celebrated Magee stove, in all its various forms and patterns, is manufactured from the crude iron.  The establishment consumes two thousand tons of coal annually, and converts four thousand tons of pig-iron into graceful and useful articles.  John Magee, the organizer and president of the company, is the patentee of all the improvements.  The works were established in Chelsea in 1864; they employ five hundred operatives, and produce thirty thousand stoves and furnaces yearly.  These are shipped by car-load all through the Northern and Western States,