Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 11.

The first Mrs. James was only thirty-four years old when she died, and we know very little about her except the influence of her Christian character upon her children.

It is a family tradition that Miss Jacobs declared that she never would be a step-mother to anybody's children, but when her suitor came rowing down the river and asked her to come up to Medford and be a mother to his two, she did not say him nay. She was a cousin of Mary Rand Turner James, and at the time of her marriage was living at the Marine Hospital in Chelsea, where Hon. Charles Turner was steward. During the last years of her life she was blind, and, as early as 1846 she complained of impaired sight, but she put her own ailments in the background and interested herself in the cares of her household and the welfare of those about her. A sister of Miss Jacobs was the mother of Hon. Charles Sumner.

The son, Horace James, was educated at Andover and Yale, became a clergyman and was settled at Wrentham, Worcester and Lowell.

During the war, he was chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, enlisting at Worcester. It was said of him, ‘Kindness of disposition, strong common sense, great willingness for and capacity for work and clear insight into the character of men were among his predominant characteristics. . . but in, through and above all, our friend lived to glorify God as a Christian minister.’ After his term of enlistment had expired, he was connected with the Freedmen's Bureau. His health was undermined by an attack of yellow fever while serving in this capacity, and in 1873 he was stricken with hemorrhage of the lungs, which caused his death, June 9, 1875.

The daughter became the wife of William Haskins of Medford. It is only a little while ago that she left us, and we appreciate her sterling qualities. Her father spent the last years of his life in her family. He died April 14, 1879.