USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Medford > History of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement in 1630 to 1855 > Part 38
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March 7, 1807: The town voted to enlarge the school- house. After this was done, the girls and boys were taught in separate apartments.
This schoolhouse was occupied from 1795 to 1848, when its mission was ended, as the following vote will show : -
"March 13, 1848: Voted, That the selectmen be in- structed to remove the brick schoolhouse in the rear of the First (Unitarian) Church from the land owned by that parish."
There had been much contention between the town and the parish, in regard to the ownership of this land ; but it was finally settled that the parish succeeded to all the rights the town had enjoyed while there was but one parish within its limits.
The writer well remembers this old schoolhouse, as it was where he spent his early school-days. His master was Mr. Luther Angier, who was long a citizen of this town, and died here Sept. 4, 1881. He occupied many impor- tant positions in the town, and in his services was always acceptable. He was a true gentleman, an instructor apt to teach, and by his kindness won the respect and confi- dence of his pupils. The accompanying illustration will show the schoolhouse as it originally appeared.
Other school edifices of later origin have also been outgrown and abandoned.
That erected on the Woburn road 1829, and removed
Medford
$600
1. RICK SCHOOLHOUSE,
405
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
to High Street 1831, was blown down by the tornado of 1851.
The Cross-street structure was not used as a school- house after 1852.
The house erected on Union Street, 1835, and shared for several years with the fire-department, was abandoned,
High School House.
1867, and, being removed by its purchaser to Summer Street, is now devoted to other uses.
1867: The schools were removed from the edifice erected, 1851, on the corner of Brooks and Irving Streets ; and the structure has since become a dwelling-house.
In the spring of 1855 the old Park-street schoolhouse, built in 1837, was consumed. by fire; and the Swan was erected upon the same premises.
The following table records certain facts concerning the houses now used by the schools : -
406
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
NAME.
WHEN BUILT.
BUILDING COMMITTEE.
BUILDERS.
COST.
High
1843
O. Joyce, D. Lawrence,
William B. Thomas, Charles Caldwell.
$7,568
( J. O. Curtis.
( Henry A. Page, A. H. Butters, A. N. Cotton,
High (remodelled)
.
I866
John P. Perry, N. T. Merritt,
[ Charles Cummings.
Osgood
1851
George T. Goodwin, M. E. Knox, (Henry Taylor.
Beaty & Bradlee.
3,375
( Robert L. Ells,
Everett
1852
Samuel Joyce,
James Peirce.
7,166
( Henry Taylor.
(C. S. Jacobs,
Swan (rebuilt) .
1855
Franklin Patch,
David K. Miller.
7,099
( Judah Loring.
¿ Peter C. Hall,
Charles S. Jacobs.
6,434
James
I866
The School Committee.
J. H. Norton.
6,280
( Luther Farwell,
N. T. Merritt,
Brooks
1867
A. F. Badger,
(N. W. Bridge. j
(Daniel A. Gleason,
Tufts .
1868
D. W. Lawrence, ( Luther T. Seaver.
J. H. Norton.
5,184
Curtis .
1876
George W. Gardner, Daniel Hill,
William B. Thomas.
5,389
( James Hedenberg.
( James A. Hervey,
Cummings .
I878
John H. Hooper, Benjamin C. Leonard. -
S
J. H. Archibald.
5,996
Hall
1879
J. A. Hervey, J. H. Hooper, (B. C. Leonard.
James Peirce.
6,000
The Osgood and Curtis houses, erected on Salem Street, - one near Park Street, and the other near Malden line, - were removed to their present locations, the Curtis to Parish Street in 1879, and the Osgood to Wellington in 1883.
TOWN-HALL.
The question concerning the right of the town to use the meeting-house of the First Parish for town-meetings having been settled, the inhabitants began to devise meas- ures for building a town-house, and the subject came up for consideration, Dec. 6, 1827 ; but no definite action was had. It engaged attention at subsequent meetings ; but nothing final occurred till March 4, 1833, when a commit- tee recommended the building of a town-house, whose dimensions should be " sixty-five feet long, forty wide, and
J. H. Norton.
22,31I
Cradock
1857
[ Benjamin H. Samson,
William B. Thomas.
21,055
407
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
eighteen-feet posts." This report was accepted ; and the land on which the building now stands, on the north-east corner of Main and High Streets, was purchased of the heirs of Mr. Samuel Buel for $3,000. The plan of the building was drawn by Mr. Benjamin of Boston. The length was extended to seventy feet. The cost of land and building was $10.062.25. The building-committee
Brooks School House.
were Messrs. John P. Clisby, John Sparrell, and Thomas R. Peck.
Oct. 27, 1839, Saturday night, it was partly destroyed by fire. Nov. 25 the town voted to rebuild on the original model. The insurance of $5,000 was used to pay for the repairs, and nearly covered the whole amount, which was $5,389.89. The south end was built of brick, and the house made thirteen feet longer than at first. It was again insured, at the same office, for $5,000. The build- ing-committee were Messrs. Darius Waite, Milton James, and John P. Clisby.
Oct. 18, 1850, Saturday night, it was again burned in part. The town voted to rebuild; and, having received
408
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
from the insurance-office $4,580, this money was used for payment. The building-committee were Messrs. Daniel Lawrence, George T. Goodwin, and Charles S. Jacobs ; the master-builder, Mr. Charles Caldwell. The cost of rebuilding was $5,941.26. Its dimensions now are ninety- two feet ridge, eighty-three feet body, and forty feet width. The first story is occupied by the selectmen, the assessors, the town clerk and treasurer, collector of taxes, the water- board, and the police-department. The hall covers the entire second story.
409
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
CHAPTER XX.
TRADE AND MANUFACTURES.
MEDFORD having for its friend the richest merchant belonging to the "Company" of the Massachusetts Plan- tation, its trade was at first considerable.
Oct. 16, 1629: The General Court ordered "that the company's joint stock shall have the trade of beaver and all other furs in those parts, solely, for the term of seven years from this day."
May 18, 1631: "It is ordered that every plantation within the limits of this patent shall, before the last day of June next, provide common weights and measures, which shall be made by some which the governor hath already sealed, and by which also all others that will have weights and measures of their own are to be made."
1635 : Voted that beaver-skins shall pass for ten shil- lings per pound.
Sept. 6, 1638 : Mr. Cradock's accounts were audited in Boston.
Mr. Cradock's large outlay here, for all the accommo- dations requisite in building schooners and carrying on an extensive fishing-business, made this region a trading- centre. This first state of things continued till the with- drawal of Mr. Cradock's property, a few years after his death. The fishing-business had been unsuccessful, and no one would continue it. The second period of trade in Medford reached (to speak in round numbers) from 1650 to 1750, during which time the manufacture of bricks was the most important and lucrative business pursued in the town. Other branches gradually increased.
1650 to 1700, there were no newspapers, no scientific lectures, no bank, no insurance companies, no post-office, no stage-coaches, no good roads. Must not trade have been small ?
The third period extended from 1750 to 1805. It began
410
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
to be understood that Medford could furnish the staple articles of iron, steel, lead, salt, molasses, sugar, tea, cod- fish, chocolate, guns, powder, rum, etc., to country traders at a less price than they could get them at Boston. The distilling business and the manufacture of bricks required many lighters to go loaded to Boston : returning, they could bring back iron, steel, etc., at small cost. Medford, therefore, by its river, became quite a centre of supply to country traders from New Hampshire and Vermont. Supply begets market, as market begets supply. Traders here could purchase ivory-handled knives, spring-locks, brass-ware, tin, and pewter; of groceries, every thing but good tea and coffee ; of dry goods, Kent linen, cotton, Irish stockings, Turkey mohair, red serge, broadcloth, muffs, ribbons, lace, silks, combs, napkins, yellow taffety, thread- lace, gloves, etc. Barter was the most common form of trade; and the exchanges were made with less care and exactitude than marks business transactions at the present date.
Pitch, tar, and turpentine were brought from the interior at an early date; but, in 1755, it became an active busi- ness. Casks for them were made in Medford; and the vote of the town required that each cask should be exam- ined by a committee, and, if well made, then marked with a double M. Coopering now became an extensive and profitable branch of business. It was begun, before the Revolution, by the agency of Mr. Benjamin Hall. Charles Henley of Boston was his foreman, and superintended it till 1802. Andrew Blanchard, Joseph Pierce, and James Kidder were apprentices in Mr. Hall's establishment.
Mr. Benjamin Hall was among the first and the most active of the Medford merchants. He not only carried on the distilling business, but had a large store for wholesale barter. It was not uncommon for him to receive a hun- dred barrels of pearlashes per day, and five hundred tierces of flax-seed per year. He also carried on the "beef busi- ness," having seven hundred head of cattle slaughtered each year. Mr. Ebenezer Hall had an equal number slaughtered, and they made all their tallow into candles. The drovers were glad to take their pay in sugar, molasses, iron, tea, rum, etc.
How different this from the course of trade in England, where a man was forbidden by law to carry on two me- chanic trades or different pursuits ! A tanner could not
4II
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
be a shoemaker. These monopolies and legal restrictions had no place in New England, and their absence was a prime cause of our great prosperity. It made every free man a free trader. The British Parliament tried to put on the handcuffs of restriction, but the colonists would not wear them. Gallatin says, "No cause has contributed more to the prosperity of this country than the absence of those systems of internal restriction and monopoly which continue to disfigure other countries."
Mr. Jonathan Porter came to Medford in 1773. He opened a store of English goods previous to the Revolu- tion, and gradually enlarged his business till he sold all the heavier articles of inland commerce. There are those now living who remember when from twenty to thirty " country pungs " were gathered about the doors of these Medford traders, discharging and taking in their loads. These pungs were drawn by two horses each, and started as far north as Montpelier, Vt., and Lancaster, N.H. With three large distilleries in full action, and many sloops and schooners navigating the river, Medford became one of the most active and thriving towns in the Common- wealth. Distillation was esteemed not only lawful and right, but a highly respectable business. With rapid strides, Medford rose in wealth and increased in numbers; and in 1805 there were many stores opened, where the necessaries and conveniences and even the ornaments and luxuries of life could be obtained at as cheap a rate as in Boston.
The increase of business, and the gathering of traders in the market-place, became so great at the beginning of the century, that it was deemed advisable to appoint a clerk of the market. The first clerk was elected March 2, 1801.
The fourth period of trade in Medford extends from 1805 to the present time. The ship-building, the introduction of steam, the Middlesex Canal, the immigration of Bosto- nians to this place, -these all helped to open new avenues to wealth, and increase the facilities of supply. Within this period, more than three-fourths the present number of houses have been built; and there are now five public highways where there was one fifty years ago. The whole course of trade has changed from barter to cash payments or credits ; and one trader now can do as much in a year as three could at the beginning of this century. The
412
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
number of gentlemen who reside here, and do business in Boston, is very large, and they are multiplying every month ; and their family supplies are of course largely purchased from the traders of the town.
During the embargo, in 1808, an old black schooner came up Mystic River with a deck-load of wood and bark. A custom-house officer from Boston took possession of her as a suspected smuggler. The captain invited the officer to take supper with him in the cabin. They sat and ate together, and the captain asked to be excused a moment while he gave an order to his men. No sooner had he arrived on deck than he turned, and fastened the cabin door. Extempore Indians were ready to unload the hold of the schooner, which was full of English goods, wire, etc., from Halifax. During half the night, horse- wagons were passing to Boston from the old wharf, owned by Francis Shed, below the shipyard. Some teams went to Malden, and some to West Cambridge. The amounts were very large, and the goods of the costliest kinds. The planting of that night produced a rich harvest. The goods were never discovered, but the vessel was con- demned and confiscated. How soundly the officer slept, is not known.
Of manufacturing establishments, Medford has never had many, in the modern acceptation of the term. Among the first settlers, every house was, in one sense, a factory ; for almost every one had a spinning-wheel and loom. For the early ship-building, there must have been extensive iron-works ; and much weaving of cotton and wool must have been necessary to supply the large numbers of fisher- men and brickmakers. Much wool was cleaned, carded, and rolled at the mill of Mr. John Albree, who was a manufacturer of starch and pomatum. Leaving out brick- making, ship-building, and distilling, we have little to record. Wooden heels were made by Mr. Samuel Reeves, 1750; and specimens of his work are yet among his great- grandchildren in Medford. Candles and hogsheads were extensively made, about the same time, by Messrs. Benja- min and Ebenezer Hall. Saltpetre was made in consid- erable quantities by Mr. Isaac Brooks. Wheelwrights carried on their business to a large extent. Mr. James Tufts and Son carried on for many years the pottery business. Tanning was vigorously pursued, with a great outlay of capital, by Mr. Ebenezer Hall, on land nearly
413
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
opposite the High-school building ; and by Mr. Jonathan Brooks, on land near Marble Brook. The first tanyard in Medford was on the corner north of High Street, near High-street Court. It was bounded on the east by the brook, on the west by Canal Street, and on the north by High Street. It was last owned by Mr. Nathan Tufts and Mr. Jonathan Brooks, in company. When they sold it, Mr. Tufts moved to Charlestown, and became the most extensive manufacturer of leather in the State.
There was another tanyard owned by Mr. Wade, and carried on as a tannery as late as 1825, on the south side of High Street, on grounds now used by Mr. James Bean, florist.
In Baconville, now a part of Winchester, a good deal of business was carried on, - the spinning of yarn for broadcloth, the making of wood-screws, etc. In 1824 Robert Bacon set up a manufactory of hat-bodies, feltings, etc. This business he continued until 1848, when he re- signed it to his son. Baconville was set off from Medford in 1850, and, as has been said, became a part of the new town of Winchester.
The making of linseed-oil was carried on by Mr. George L. Stearns, on land about fifty rods south of Mystic Bridge. He imported his seed from Calcutta. A convention of manufacturers of this oil was held at New York in 1841 ; and they agreed to send a committee to Washington, to induce Congress to shape the tariff of 1842 so as to pro- tect them. The committee succeeded, and Mr. Stearns was one of them. The effect was the opposite of what they expected : it induced so many new men to begin the business, that it ruined it. From 1835, the manufactory in Medford continued in operation to 1845, when it sus- pended activity. It resumed work for a year; but the building was burned in 1847, and the enterprise was abandoned.
Quite an extensive business in the manufacture of doors, blinds, and window-sashes, was carried on by Messrs. Waterman & Litchfield, from 1850 to 1860, on Curtis's Wharf, near the entrance of Mystic Avenue. Their works were operated by steam. The business was finally trans- ferred to Charlestown.
---
414
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
FISHERIES.
To Medford belongs the honor of establishing the first fisheries in "London's Plantation of Massachusetts Bay." Careful and costly preparations for this business were made in England, in 1629, by Mr. Cradock, who believed it the most promising investment then offered from the New World. In the company's "first general letter," under date of April 17, 1629, is indicated a course of trade which was to be pursued by the Medford fishermen. It is thus : -
" We have sent five weigh of salt in the ' Whelpe,' and ten weigh in the 'Talbot.' If there be shallops to be had to fish withal, and the season of the year fit, pray let the fishermen (of which we send six from Dorchester), together with some of the ship's company, endeavor to take fish ; and let it be well saved with the said salt, and packed up in hogsheads ; and send it home by the ' Talbot' or 'Lion's Whelpe.""
At the same time they send "a seine, being a net to fish with." May 28, 1629, they say, -
"We send salt, lines, hooks, knives, boots, &c., for the fishermen, desiring our men may be employed in harbor, or upon the Bank. If you send ships to fish on the Bank, and expect them not to return again to the plantation, &c."
By this it appears that those vessels which had caught a cargo of fish "on the Bank" were expected to take them thence to London. Sept. 3, 1635, the General Court chose a committee of six "for setting forward and managing a fishing-trade." That fishing was profitable, we have the following early record : "Thirty-five ships sailed this year (1622) from the west of England, and two from Lon- don, to fish on the New-England coasts ; and made profit- able voyages." Through the instrumentality of our fishing- interest, the General Court passed the following order, May 22, 1639 : "For further encouragement of men to set upon fishing, it is ordered, that such ships and vessels and other stock as shall be properly employed and adventured in taking, making, and transporting of fish according to the course of fishing-voyages, and the fish itself, shall be exempt, for seven years from henceforth, from all country charges." To show how minute was the fostering care of our fathers on this point, we have the following order of June 2, 1641 : "It is ordered that fishermen shall have
RESIDENCE OF J. HENRY NORCROSS.
415
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
their fish for bait at the same rate that others have at the wears, and be first served." "The property of Governor Cradock, invested at Medford for fishing and other pur- poses," was large. Mr. Savage says, "He maintained a small plantation for fishing at Mistick, in the present bounds of Malden, opposite to Winthrop's farm, at Ten Hills." Complaint was made by our fishermen of a law passed by Plymouth Colony, which laid a tax of five shillings on "every share of fish " caught by strangers "at the Cape." From all that we can gather, we conclude that Mr. Cra- dock had invested as much as fifteen thousand dollars, which in various trade here must have made Medford a thriving and populous plantation, for an infant settlement. The fishing-business continued for fifteen or twenty years, but with less and less profit to Mr. Cradock. It was finally abandoned as a failure, and afterwards the river-fishing alone claimed attention.
May, 1639: The price of alewives in Medford, at this time, was five shillings per thousand. This made food incredibly cheap.
That Mystic River, as a resort for fish, was early known and greatly valued, appears from many testimonies. In Josselyn's account of his two voyages to New England (1638) we have the following record : "The river Mistick runs through the right side of the town (Charlestown), and, by its near approach to Charles River in one place, makes a very narrow neck, where stands most part of the town. The market-place, not far from the water-side, is surrounded with houses." In Mystic River were " bass, shad, alewives, frost-fish, and smelts." Josselyn says, "We will return to Charlestown again, where the river Mistick runs on the north side of the town (that is, the right side, as before said), where, on the north-west side, is the town of Mistick, three miles from Charlestown, a league and a half by water, -a scattered village. At the head of this river are great and spacious ponds, full of alewives in the spring-time ; the notedest place for this sort of fish." This quotation from Josselyn goes to prove that bass, shad, and alewives were no strangers in our rivers. The "Wear" or fishing dam in Medford was at the outlet of the pond ; and, as our river was "the notedest place " for fish in the early days of our plantation, we presume that the " seine, being a net sent to fish with," was the first seine ever drawn in its waters, and the first drawn on this continent. This was
-
416
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
probably in 1631 ; and the first draught was doubtless an event of liveliest interest, of raw wonder, and exceeding joy. If any web or filament of that pioneer "seine " had come down to us, it would have been fitting for the town, in the year 1881, to parade it as the banner, and under it to unite in celebrating the fifth fishermen's jubilee on the river. June 6, 1639: "It is ordered that all wears shall be set open from the last day of the week, at noon, till the second day in the morning."
Johnson, in his "Wonder-working Providence," says, " The Lord is pleased to provide for them great store of fish in the spring-time, and especially alewives, about the bigness of a herring. Many thousands of these they use to put under their Indian corn."
Had Mr. Cradock's letters to his agents in Medford been preserved, we should certainly have in them a com- plete history of the fishing-establishment he maintained here, and probably a comparative estimate of sea and river fishing. The introduction of the drag-net, in 1631, when Mystic River was full of fish, was an example that would be followed more and more, as proper seines could be knit and easy markets secured. The narrowness of the river, the steepness of its banks, its freedom from rocks, and its many convenient landing-places, rendered net-fishing easy and cheap. It settled down into a regular business, and any one had a right to pursue it. We have no account of the intermittent run of certain fish, as witnessed in our time ; but presume it may not have been so remarkable then, when dams and water-wheels had not impeded or frightened the finny adventurers, or when filth and poisons had not made their highways dangerous. We think it will be found that several species of fish will have periodic returns to places which they have left for many years.
Acts of legislation have not been wanting by our town or State, but the fish care nothing about votes. The first mention of specific action by the town, as such, is dated Jan. 18, 1768, when it was voted "to petition the General Court concerning the fishery in this town."
March 3, 1768 : Mr. Benjamin Hall and others petition the General Court "for liberty to draw with seines, at two different places in Mistick River, three days in a week." This petition was not acted upon for some years.
The next Act of the General Court, touching the Mystic fisheries, was dated Feb. 16, 1789, and was as follows :-
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
" An Act to prevent the destruction of fish called shad and alewives; in Mystic River, so called, within the towns of Cambridge, Charles -. town, and Medford, and for repealing all laws heretofore made for. that purpose.
" Whereas the fishery in Mystic River, in the county of Middle- sex, if properly regulated, will be of great public utility, as it serves to promote the cod-fishery, and is also of advantage to the particular towns through which the river runs, affording, in some measure, sub- sistence and support to the inhabitants thereof, and is therefore ne- cessary to be preserved," etc.
The Act provides that each of the three towns is em- powered to choose a committee for the preservation of fish, whose duty it shall be to keep out of the river all obstruc; tions to the free ingress of the fish. The Act grants to Cambridge the right to fish, within the limits of that town, on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday ; and to Charlestown and Medford the right of fishing, within the limits of those towns, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, -from the. first of March to the last day of June. Penalty for each violation of the law, three pounds. In this Act, the right of each inhabitant to fish is recognized and secured. If persons from other towns should either stop or catch fish in this river, they shall each be fined three pounds for every such offence; and the committee shall have power to arrest them, and sell their seines, drag-nets, marsh-nets, baskets, or any other implements used by them. " This Act to be in use five years, and no longer."
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