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Browsing named entities in HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855. (ed. Charles Brooks). You can also browse the collection for May 23rd, 1774 AD or search for May 23rd, 1774 AD in all documents.

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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855. (ed. Charles Brooks), Chapter 9: public buildings. (search)
parents. The first mention in our Medford records of any alms-house is May 16, 1737,--more than a century after the incorporation of the town; and then it is proposed to invite neighboring towns to unite in building a common workhouse. The inhabitants chose a committee to confer with the adjacent towns, and to induce them to join in building a house for employing poor, indigent, and slothful persons. This proposition was not accepted; and Medford did nothing more about the matter till May 23, 1774, when a committee was chosen to provide a poorhouse on account of the town exclusively. This was the definite movement that led to practical results, and it was the first in this particular direction. It shows that the number of paupers were small till this time. In 1790, the town purchased a large house at the West End, near where the Lowell Railroad Station now is, together with a small lot of land, sufficient only for a vegetable garden. Here the poor and helpless were gathered a