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[356] by the second meeting-house. The banks remain visible at this time. A bed of clay was opened, in 1805, about forty rods east of the Wear Bridge, on land belonging to Spencer Bucknam, lying on the north side of the road. Only one kiln was burned there. Fountain-yards.--These yards, which were near the “Fountain house,” about eighty rods east of “Gravelly Bridge,” were early in order of age. Messrs. William Tufts, Thomas Bradshaw, Hutchinson Tufts, Benjamin Tufts, and Sylvanus Blanchard were the manufacturers in that locality. These yards have been discontinued within our day. Yards near the “Cradock house” were opened in 1630. Mr. Francis Shedd occupied them in 1700. “Sodom-yards.” --As the familiar and improper sobriquet of Sodom was early given to that part of Medford which lies south of the river, the brick-yards, opened by the brothers Isaac, Jonathan, and Ebenezer Tufts, obtained the local name. After these gentlemen came Seth Tufts, who, with his son Seth, carried on the business till recently. These yards were situated near Middlesex Canal and the river, about south-south-east from Rock Hill. The next in order of age were the yards opened in 1810 by Nathan Adams, Esq. They were situated each side of the old county road, leading from Medford over Winter Hill, and were about half a mile south of the “Great Bridge,” in the small valley on the borders of Winter Brook. From the first kiln, Captain Adams built the house now standing on the right side of the road, twenty rods north of the kiln, as an advertisement; and the bricks show the goodness of the clay and the skill of the workmen. These yards were next occupied by Mr. Babbitt, but have been discontinued for ten or fifteen years. We presume that bricks have been made in many places now unknown to us; for nearly the whole of Medford seems to have a deep stratum of pure clay under it. The facility of procuring pine, chestnut, and hemlock-wood by the Middlesex Canal made this branch of business profitable; but when steam navigation could bring bricks from Maine, where wood was half the price it bore here, the Medford trade was fatally curtailed. The bricks were carted to Boston at great cost, which gave the yards in Charlestown an advantage over ours. If they were taken in “lighters,”
John Wilson and son. 22 School Street. Boston. 1855.
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