Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 4.

On Oct. 15, 1880, Mr. Wright called together some two hundred people, and on Bear Hill formed a small association to devise plans and the measures for carrying them out. Two plans were sketched, Mr. Wright's and that of Wilson Flagg. Mr. Wright's embraced the distinct and yet harmonious purposes of both, and was the one adopted. During the next two months, these able advocates had made such headway that the mass meeting held in the Medford Town Hall on Jan. 1, 1881, was packed with eager listeners and addressed by speakers who having just returned from a smart drive through the Fells were strong for their preservation. Eighteen hundred and eighty-one later on was the year of the Ravine woods desecration, and this heartless and selfish destruction Mr. Wright did his best to prevent, but the owners in an attempt to take advantage of his public spirit charged a price so exorbitant, that he could neither pay it nor, in the time allowed, get it subscribed. Forced to abandon his hope, he determined those grand old saviors of mankind should perish only to save their brother trees, and his work for his Fells was redoubled. He had already established ‘Forest Festivals,’ which were held yearly and in different parts of the Fells, that its attractions might supplement the speaking, or rather might speak for themselves; and in 1883, in his ‘Forestry Law’ of 1882, Chap. 255, he had secured all the legislation necessary to his plan, and to the taking of lands by it anywhere in Massachusetts; had enlisted trustees to take charge of his conditional obligations; had obtained toward the subscription written pledges to the amount of $14,102, and verbal promises of more than twice that sum, and had begun the work of organizing ‘Public Domain Clubs’ in the Fells municipalities and in Boston, for he did not forget that Boston's obligation should be measured by her benefits, which acting in concert with the Fells Association might elect committees and employ canvassers. Such a club, comprising some two hundred members, he caused to be formed