Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 5.

Twice was an effort made to connect our northern neighbors with Boston, via the Medford Branch. A summer outing might well be taken to trace the road bed of the original Stoneham Branch, but the defunct Mystic Valley R. R. of later date would not be found within our boundaries, though in sight.

Perhaps the youth of our time, who have worn out ‘Tinkham Brothers' Tide Mill’ (till recently in the Public Library), know that Medford was disguised as ‘Dempford,’ and Arlington as ‘Tamoset,’ by the author.

Whether the destroyers of ‘Wood's Dam’ were in the right is not for the writer to say, but the old mill dependent on the tidal current for its power was a picturesque object, though on the Arlington side of the river.

Of the foregoing scenes the writer has seen but one or two pictures, one being of the Wood's Mill. It is to be regretted that no file of Medford's first or second weekly paper is known to exist. If they do, they elude search for them, and we lose the information they might give us. Now that the camera is popularized, why not ‘snap up’ the interesting things and preserve them for the future, adding some explanation of name and date? What scholar now in the public school is there who would not be pleased in mature life to see the schoolhouse and schoolmates' faces grouped together, with the loved teacher in the midst, and be encouraged to some good work by the remembrance of the old associations?

In the corner stone of one of Medford's churches is a photograph of the interior of its predecessor. It had been carried out of the country, but came back again (five hundred miles), to find a resting place, and await the time when it shall tell the silent story of ‘Harvest Sunday,’ possibly when all who then lived shall be equally silent.

The above is a suggestion to those who may be able to catch and preserve the interesting things in our midst. All enterprises and industries in the past have helped to make our city what it is. Those of today are doing so. Let them not be forgotten.