HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855.
Charles Brooks, Ed.

[493] chaises would start together; and, reaching Mr. Breed's, the ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, would proceed to fishing from the rocks and boats. Each one wore the commonest clothes; and the day was passed in all sorts of sports. A fish-dinner was an agreed part of the fare; and a supper at Lynn Hotel closed the eating of the day. The party rode home by moonlight; and, by ten o'clock, were tired enough to go to bed.

Dec. 10, 1816.--The town of Brooks, in Hancock County, Maine, containing 13,744 acres, was named in honor of the governor.

Every town rejoices in some euphonious local names. Medford has Sodom, Ram-head, Labor in Vain, No Man's Friend, Hardscrabble.

A minister was asked if he would attend an evening meeting for religious worship. He answered, “No: I have no opinion of religion got by candle-light.”

The first time any meeting-house in Medford had been heated by a stove was Dec. 18, 1820.

1822.--The delta of trees, within the triangular fence, which is in the public road, at the junction of High and Grove Streets, near the Lowell Railroad Station, in West Medford, was planted by the Hon. Peter C. Brooks in 1822; and the fence was built at his expense.

1825.--Medford has not been a resort for Jews; but it had one who is remembered with interest,--Abraham Touro, eminent for his social and generous qualities. When General Lafayette reached Massachusetts, Mr. Touro offered him his noble horse for his entrance into Boston. On the day of that triumphant entry, Mr. Touro was standing in his chaise, to catch his first sight of the illustrious visitor, when a sudden start of his horse threw him from his place, and broke his leg. The fracture was a very bad one, and the patient grew worse daily. The physicians and surgeons did all they could, and finally assured him that nothing but amputation could save his life. With a Jew's traditionary prejudice against that operation, he firmly answered thus: “No! I will never go into heaven with one leg.”

He left about two hundred thousand dollars; and distributed it, by will, in legacies varying from five to twenty thousand dollars. He gave much in charity. He left a large sum to keep the synagogue in Newport, R. I., in good repair.

1825.--Parties in the Woods. Within the first twenty years of this century, it was customary for select parties of girls and boys, in whortleberry-time, to go into the woods near Pine Hill, or at the Bower, and there frolic in true rustic style. A long extempore table was crowded with eatables, which had been contributed by the several members of the party. Rural dresses and schoolboy manners gave zest to the occasion; while dancing on the grass allowed all to join. The coming home in procession, or in carts, gave the last touch to the jubilant scene.