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

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[270] and enlarged in 1850. The society was kindly invited by the Unitarian parish to use their house for worship while the repairs were making. This invitation was accepted. Rev. Dr. Ballou, having been called to the Presidency of Tufts's College, resigned in August, 1853; and, in April, 1854, the present pastor, G. V. Maxham, was ordained.

The church was organized Jan. 19, 1834; at which time twenty-three persons joined it.

This is the only society of this denomination which has been gathered in Medford. It has great prosperity; and its Sunday school contains, on an average, one hundred and fifty pupils.

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Methodist Society.

In the year 1843, no Methodist Episcopal church existed in this place. Some twelve or fifteen individuals, members of that denomination, connected either with a church in Charlestown or the one in Malden, were accustomed to meet each week and hold a class-meeting, which was conducted by one of their number who had been appointed leader.

During the winter of 1843-4, Rev. J. W. Whitman, stationed at Malden, and whose circuit included this town also, preached several times, in a small building, to attentive congregations; and, the Holy Spirit accompanying his earnest endeavors, a gracious revival was the result, and about sixty individuals were brought under a saving religious influence. In the spring of 1844, “Father Pickering,” a veteran soldier of our Lord, was stationed, by the New England Conference, at this place. With true apostolic zeal, he organized a church, gathered the trembling ones within the fold, and, by his heavenly teachings, led them on to more perfect trust and confidence in Christ. During this year also, and under his special supervision,--the result of the earnest self-denial of some, and the generous kindness of others,--a plain, neat, and commodious house of worship was erected.

In 1845, Rev. G. W. Frost was appointed to labor here; and was succeeded, in 1846, by Rev. J. Augustus Adams, a thorough scholar and an earnest Christian, who bent all his energies to the great work of guiding souls heavenward. The year following, Rev. J. Shepard, a good man and full of the Holy Ghost, was pastor.

In 1848, Rev. I. W. Tucker occupied the same station;