William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 2

The town-clerk during each year of the war was William Macarty. The town-treasurer during the same period was Ephraim M. Dudley.

1861. The first legal town-meeting to act upon matters relating to the war was held on the 20th of May, at which a vote was passed to appropriate, not exceeding ten thousand dollars, to defray the expenses of, and procuring outfits for, a military company ‘recently formed in the town;’ and also to provide for the comfortable maintenance of the families of those volunteers ‘who reside in the town,’ and for such other purposes as may be expedient ‘in preparing our citizens by military training, in the event of their services being required by the Government; provided that the Legislature authorize towns to raise money for such purposes.’¹ The town then chose Stephen M. Weld, Charles Brewer, J. Ingersol Bowditch, Joseph H. Billings, G. Winthrop Coffin, George S. Curtis, and Frank Hodgkinson a committee, to whom full power was given in regard to the expenditure of the money. A formal vote was then passed giving the selectmen authority to borrow the money. On the 7th of October another meeting was held, at which Mr. Weld, the chairman of the committee, recommended that the selectmen be authorized to pay each volunteer who shall enlist in the military service, and who is an inhabitant of West Roxbury, a bounty of five dollars, which was adopted; and also that the same amount ‘be paid to each volunteer in a company now forming.’

1862. On the 17th of July a special town-meeting was held, at which the selectmen were authorized to borrow six thousand dollars (payable Oct. 1, 1863) from which to pay a bounty of one hundred dollars to each person ‘who shall enlist for three years in the military service of the United States, to the number required to fill the quota of the town, to be paid when mustered in and credited to West Roxbury.’ Another meeting was held on the 6th of September, when the selectmen