HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855.
Charles Brooks, Ed.

In 1785, some gentlemen associated themselves under the name of the “Medford Amicable fire Society,” with the motto, Amicis nobisque. Twenty-four members only were allowed; and they solemnly engage to govern themselves by the nine “regulations” which they adopted. These regulations embrace all the common provisions for choice of officers and transaction of business which such an association would require. The third provides that

each member shall keep constantly in good order, hanging up in some convenient place in his dwelling-house, two leather buckets, of convenient size, in which shall be two bags and one screwkey, each bag measuring one yard and three-quarters in length, and three-quarters of a yard in breadth. If the bags or buckets of any member be out of place at any quarterly inspection, he shall pay a fine of twenty-five cents for each article so out of place.

At the alarm of fire, each member shall immediately repair, with his bags, buckets, &c., to the place where it happens; and, if the house or property of any member be in danger, every member shall resort thither, and use his utmost endeavors, under the direction of the member in danger, if present, otherwise according to his own judgment, to secure all his goods and effects, under penalty of what the society may determine. And if there shall not be any property of a member in danger, then each member, at the request of any other person in immediate danger, will consider himself obliged to assist such person in the same manner as though such person belonged to the society.

Candidates for admission must be proposed three months before election; and three votes in the negative prevent membership. The second line in the first article of regulations reads thus: “The members shall dine together on the first Wednesday in August annually.”

When engines were few, and their hose were short, this society rendered most important service; and, as their chief aim was to rescue furniture, they were sometimes able to save nearly all by their concentrated and harmonious action. The introduction of better engines and systematic procedure at fires has rendered the society so little needed that it has almost lost its existence.

Sept. 19, 1796: Voted to procure a new engine.

These engines served the purposes of the town till a late period. The firemen were selected from the most reliable