Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 22.

[p. 72] at this time the high cost of living: tea, 58 cents per lb.; loam, 50 cents a load; molasses, 37 cents per gallon; cider, $2.00 a barrell; apples, $1.67 and $1.25; corn, 55 cents per bushel; butter, 15 and 16 cents; chips, $I.25 per load; goose, 33 cents; shoes, $1.25; hats, $1.00 and $2.00; shad, 53 cents; pork, 8 and 10 cents; broom, 28 cents.

One learns who some of the townspeople were and the occupations they engaged in: Mr. Gleason sold hats, shoes; Mr. Cutter sold meat; Mr. Lock sold meat; Mr. Emerson sold meat; Mr. Symmes did iron work; Mr. Barker did papering; Mr. Stow did painting, glazing; Mr. Clough did hooping; Mr. Floyd carted chips and sold pigs; Captain Burridge sold hay, for which he received $13.00, to Mr. F. Bigelow, for whom he often bought cider; he sold plants, Mrs. Gray, Miss Train and Mrs. P. Swan being among his customers.

How it did fret the soul of Margaret Tufts, who married Samuel Swan, that she was always called Mrs. Peggy Swan when her sisters-in-law were punctiliously called by their husbands' names. Mrs. Peggy had the name, however, of being a very handsome woman.

The gardener is said to have lived in a house on the Bigelow grounds. His expense account shows payments for rent quarterly, $12.50 and $10.00 respectively, to Captain Ward and Mr. Bucknam. He may, sometime, have lived in the Fountain house, for he owned the east half, and two and one-half acres of land on the Salem road extending to Fulton street that he cultivated as a farm. His second note-book frequently notes the planting of his own land and the pasturing of his cows. This opens up to us the rural aspect of Medford. Many residents enjoyed the luxury of keeping a cow. Mr. Burridge attended to the pasturing of Mr. Bigelow's, Mr. Stetson's (the minister), and Mr. Train's cows, having them sometimes in the Hall pasture, again in the Roach pasture, and on his own land. Captain Adams' man often worked for the gardener, who supplied him with