[p. 72]
Rhoda Turner's was probably at ‘
Mill lane, so called,’ and all of the above tallies with the action of the town.
Here is a breeze from the shipyards:
Voted to allow Abner Bartlett's account for money paid for chips and wood for school.
Great stuff for kindling and stove wood were the chips and blocks from the shipyards, better than the ‘bagwood’ of today.
In the days when the sea was old
And the builders lithe and young,
From timber that gleamed like gold
This carpet of chips was flung.
Feb, Voted, to allow Rebecca Blanchard's account for schooling a child of Rufus P [——]24 weeks to Oct 31 last year $3.00
She was one of the ‘schoolmistresses for poor children.’
At the same meeting ‘13 in all’ men were approved as ‘enginemen,’ and it was
Voted to allow Daniel Symms five dollars in full of his account for 46 ladder dogs. . . .
Daniel Wait $25.17 for ladders and painting cases.
This was in the days of the ‘Grasshopper,’ and the fire department wasn't motorized.
And who shall say that
Medford did not encourage the fine arts?
We think it did, for on February 11:
Voted to draw on the treasury for one hundred dollars payable to Nathan Adams Jr. Treasurer of Medford Harmonic Social Singing Society, agreeable to vote of the town in [blank] last, and request of said Society.
But who shall say the money was ill spent, even though
Squire Bartlett forgot to fill in the blank space with the date of the town's action?
This other long-name society was probably the choir that sang in the old meetinghouse.
No pipe-organ in
Medford then.
We quote
Mr. Brooks, p. 492, under date of 1810:
Medford had a large choir of volunteer singers under the faithful Ephraim Bailey.
On Sunday, once, the pitch-pipe set the pitch so high that the whole choir broke down.
Still Bailey tried on the second verse and again broke down.
General Brooks
