Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 13.

The next spring, Paul Revere, in galloping over the summit of the hill, diverged from a straight course and rode ‘over the bridge into Medford Town,’ on his way to Lexington.

Three years later, the near slopes of the hill saw the encampment of the Hessian prisoners from Saratoga, and later came the days and enterprises of peace.

The canal with its boats, the turnpike with its stagecoaches and toll-house, the tide mill, where mahogany logs were sawed, with the river to bear away the product of Medford shipyards; all these crowded in this narrow pass and thence onward to the great world outside and beyond. No wonder that a Medford born citizen, in reading Mr. Brooks' account of the turnpike (then fresh from the press), felt moved to illustrate the same with the pen and ink sketch the Register reproduces today for a wider reading.

The old Tufts Mill stood just within the border of Medford, while one ‘salt meadow’ next the canal and half the other formed the mill pond. A ‘dike’ extending from the mill diagonally across the ‘meadow’ to the river impounded water that furnished power as the tide receded. The mill site was purchased by Gershom Cutter, in 1845, and the mill twice rebuilt by him after destruction by fire. This, with the business, has long since vanished and Combination Park now occupies a part of the pond site.

Mr. Brooks says, ‘about the year 80 the turnpike began to be used as a race course and trotting matches were quite common.’ One race track, the Mystic Park, has had its day and vanished. Homes for the people are rapidly arising there. Twice have railway enterprises sought a way through the hillside but as yet unsuccessfully.

The Register presents this 55 year old sketch and present article as a waymark.