Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 1.

Of equal value are plans of roads,—public or private, —of bridges and of private estates. These last are of special interest. The history of Medford is largely the history of her eminent men, whose lives have contributed so much to the making of her history; and perhaps there is no stronger desire of their descendants, or of citizens generally, than that of going to the houses in which they lived and tracing the acres they cultivated. But in most cases these ancestral houses no longer exist, and the ancestral acres have been divided into several farms or cut up into house-lots. I hope that there are those among your members who will give special attention to marking the exact bounds of the old farms, and the sites of the buildings on them. These plans, of course, should be carefully preserved, and, if made, I venture the prediction that no part of your collection will be more assiduously examined, or with more grateful recognition of the value of the services of your society.

The local press is the receptacle of a vast amount of matter not only of present interest, but of great value to the future historian. Its issues will of course find a willingly accorded place in your rooms. I have been favorably impressed by a device of the late Dr. George H. Moore, a historical writer of great excellence, and librarian of the New York Historical Society. He collected not only one but two copies of local papers— one for binding and another for scrapping; and so that society has a series of newspaper scrap-books of the local press, covering many years, and containing in most convenient form for reference the matters which the historian seeks.

Some years ago a very intelligent citizen of a neighboring city, who had been long resident and participant in its affairs, from the time when it changed from an agricultural community into a prosperous town, ultimately to become a city, contributed to one of the papers a series of articles in which, with remarkable fulness and