Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 4.

[p. 67] which Brooks, I know not by what authority, says was built in 1725. Dr. Simon Tufts was succeeded by his son, Dr. Simon Tufts, Jr., a man of high character and excellent professional standing. In my earliest recollection of the Tufts house it was occupied by Mr. Turell Tufts, son of Dr. Simon Tufts, Jr., who died in 1842.

I well remember Mr. Turell Tufts, a stout gentleman of florid countenance and somewhat imperious ways. He had at one time been consul at Surinam, and had accumulated a handsome fortune for those days. In later years he became one of the town's magnates, filling at different periods the offices of town treasurer, chairman of the board of selectmen, representative, etc., but at the time of which I write he had retired from affairs and was enjoying with dignity a gentlemanly leisure. I think he never married, but he kept house in the old mansion and diffused a generous hospitality. I take it he was fond of books, for he left $500 to the Social Library, the income of which still inures to the benefit of our Public Library. I may be fanciful, but as I call up the picture of him in my memory he reminds me of one of the East Indian nabobs who figure so largely in old English novels and comedies— choleric and gouty old gentlemen, much given to port, curry, and mullagatawny, and always sure to portion off their nephews and nieces in the handsomest manner in the closing scenes. Mr. Tufts seems to have held to heroic practices in matters dietetic; he is reported to have said that the reason why mince-pies hurt people was because they did not ‘make them rich enough.’

The sidewalk in front of Mr. Turell Tufts' house used to be our favorite resort for a game of marbles. We found a pleasant shade under the two mighty buttonwoods, and the ground was smooth and hard. Here on a pleasant day might have been seen Parson Stetson's sons, the Halls, Lawrences, Clisbys, Sam Gregg, Charley Ballou, John Burrage, and others who shall be nameless. Charles Ballou was a dead shot at marbles, and when