Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 3.

Aug. 22, 1695. ‘A complaint was made to the County Court about an incumbrance upon a Country Highway leading from Woburn to Cambridge, that was laid out Feb. 26, 1672, on the east side of Mistick Ponds. A warrant was issued to a committee to repair to said Highway as soon as may be, and remove any incumbrance that may be deemed a common nuisance. . . .’ The committee reported, March 10, 1695-6, ‘that they had laid open the country road except a short space by the house of Caleb Brooks, he having planted an orchard thereon, which bears fruit, he promises to allow a free and convenient passage through his yard until the next County Court . .’ On that same day William Johnson, Thomas Welsh, senior, and Matthew Johnson testified ‘that the said Highway from Woburn and Reding, running by Caleb Brooks' to Menotomy Mills and so on to Cambridge, according as the former committee appointed by the County Court laid it out, was improved as a Highway by Woburn and Charlestown, for many years before they laid it out.’ The return of the committee was considered by the Court: ‘It being an ancient Highway, saving that the way go through the orchard of Caleb Brooks, shall be through said Brooks his yard, it being judged by the Court to be the Country Highway, without any further compensation to be paid for it.’

Mr. Charles Brooks, in his ‘History of Medford,’ says that the house of Caleb Brooks stood immediately in front of the Woburn road (Grove street). Assuming this to be the fact, it gives us a fairly correct idea where the road leading to the mill was situated. It ran through the yard of Mr. Brooks, following the same general course in which Grove street now runs, down to the river at a point near where Arlington street connects with Jerome street.

March 22, 1708-9. ‘Pursuant to a motion of the Sheriff ’