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The expenses from Feb. 15, 1854, to Feb. 15, 1855, were as follows:--
| Public schools | $7,138.82 |
| Highways | 2,031.10 |
| Bridges | 37.71 |
| Street lamps | 192.27 |
| Poor — alms-house | 3,571.86 |
| Fire department | 2,046.04 |
| Salaries and fees | 1,482.67 |
| Miscellaneous expenses | 3,123.09 |
| Notes payable and interest paid | 5,284.00 |
| Amount of town and county taxes for 1854 | $28,726.40 |
| Receipts and income | 2,284.43 |
| Balance in treasury | 7,909.23 |
| Town debt--1855 | 34,100.00 |
Medford a town.
Mr. Frothingham, in his excellent History of
Charlestown, 1846 (p. 92), says:--“
Medford was not a town: it was rather a manor, owned by one of the leading inhabitants of
Charlestown.”
We shall very good-naturedly dissent from this statement, and show cause.
We have every reason to suppose that the town-officers in
Medford were like those in the adjoining plantations.
Our first records speak of Selectmen, sometimes called “Seven-men,” because these seven men acted as governors of the town, assessors, and referees.
They were also called “Towns-men,”
