Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 15.

[p. 50] very naturally thought it was the village church. Mr. Brooks gives the names of the building committee and adds, ‘they spared no pains in procuring a skillful draughtsman.’ We wish he had given his name, as careful search fails to reveal it. He mentioned the builder, George A. Caldwell, but in his history omits many interesting and noteworthy matters because ‘courtesy,’ ‘usage,’ or ‘custom forbids.’

Not so the committee, however, for in the city clerk's office are its reports, both majority and minority. The former, dated March 1, 1852, shows the entire expense to have been $3,370.82. Of this, $417 was for land at three cents per foot, and $187.52 for furniture and stove. The committee, pleading guilty to exceeding the appropriation, began by saying that one of its number had declined to serve, prior to the commencement of the building. It told of a plan, ‘presented by a liberal hand,’ and of $939.55 subscribed toward the construction, ‘rather than to have a one-story’ structure erected. It reported $893.55 of this collected, and that there was still due the contractor $477.27, all other bills being paid. This sum the town later appropriated and paid. This report was signed by John B. Hatch and James M. Usher.

The minority report covers about four times the space of that of the majority, and is signed by Charles Caldwell, who says he ‘was met at the very outset by one Gentleman of the committee with a cool indifference that both surprised and astonished’ him, and intimating that this was because the said ‘Gentleman’ was not placed as chairman by the town. Evidently the committee were not harmonious, as they could not agree on a location, and three lots were named. Mr. Caldwell describes one as being ‘out of the way of nine-tenths of the children that attend or will attend in future, beside the Continual passing on the Lowell Rail Road trains of Carrs that can be seen and heard for miles, which Certainly would not greatly aid a Close application to study.’ Thereupon several meetings of the district were held and another lot