Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 3.

[p. 55] (probably from the County Court). It is interesting, however, to note that the town of Medford was represented by ‘some of Mistick House.’ (The County Courts were established in the year 1643; the records of Middlesex commence in the year 1649.)

June 21, 1659, the records of the County Court say that ‘The Court doth order that 4 persons, indifferently chosen, two of them in Watertown and two in Charlestown, to lay out the highway between Cambridge and Medford.’ This location cannot be determined; probably by the way of the mill on Mistick river, and very likely the first laying out of Grove street.

On June 16, 1663, a committee was appointed by the County Court to lay out a highway between Woburn and Cambridge, through Medford.

The records of the County Court, commencing in the year 1664 and running to October, 1671, having been destroyed by fire, the location of this way cannot be determined; probably it was by the way of the mill on Mistick river and over the present lines of Grove street.

Oct. 1, 1672, the County Court appointed a committee to lay out a highway between Cambridge and Medford, and April 1, 1673, the committee reported as follows: ‘To begin upon the County Highway at a certain brook running through and upon Simms his land, so as to run on the east side of Mistick Pond, as the highway now runs, until it comes to a certain Black Oak standing by an old ditch on the plain, and then to run down in the field to the mill, through Capt Tim Wheeler's land, and so to pass over the River, at and upon the dam that pertains to the mill. . . .’

From the above description we find that this way commenced at ‘Symmes Corner’ in Winchester, running over the present location of Grove street upon the lines of a former highway; no doubt the way laid out in 1663, possibly in 1659. And we further find that there was a dam across Mistick river of sufficient width to allow of the passage of teams. The mill