hide Sorting

You can sort these results in two ways:

By entity
Chronological order for dates, alphabetical order for places and people.
By position (current method)
As the entities appear in the document.

You are currently sorting in ascending order. Sort in descending order.

hide Most Frequent Entities

The entities that appear most frequently in this document are shown below.

Entity Max. Freq Min. Freq
Jonathan Porter 58 0 Browse Search
Henry Putnam 49 1 Browse Search
Harry Bond 48 0 Browse Search
Peter Chardon Brooks 38 2 Browse Search
Sarah Bradlee Fulton 32 0 Browse Search
Danvers (Massachusetts, United States) 32 0 Browse Search
Concord (Massachusetts, United States) 26 0 Browse Search
Isaac Hall 25 5 Browse Search
Isaac Royall 20 0 Browse Search
Caleb Brooks 20 0 Browse Search
View all entities in this document...

Browsing named entities in a specific section of Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 30.. Search the whole document.

Found 315 total hits in 129 results.

... 8 9 10 11 12 13
1660 AD (search for this): chapter 1
The Brooks Estates in Medford from 1660 to 1927. By Richard B. Coolidge. [Read before the Medford Historical Society, March 21, 1927. Acknowledgment is due Mrs. Shepherd Brooks, who generously made available her husband's manuscript referred to in the text, and to Mrs. Coolidge who compiled the material.] IT is one of the margins, however, the proposal was not adopted and the territory that was old Medford remains, so far as that proceeding is concerned, the Medford of today. In 1660 Thomas Brooks became the first of this family to acquire land holdings in Medford. Medford had then progressed from a mere settlement to a scattered hamlet. Neare hundred acres acquired by Thomas Brooks lay to the north and on both sides of Grove street of today. At the date of the original purchase of the whole tract, in 1660, there was on the land a messuage, or tenement so called, leased to Golden Moor. This house, the first of the Brooks houses, stood on the south side of High stree
1927 AD (search for this): chapter 1
The Brooks Estates in Medford from 1660 to 1927. By Richard B. Coolidge. [Read before the Medford Historical Society, March 21, 1927. Acknowledgment is due Mrs. Shepherd Brooks, who generously made available her husband's manuscript referred to in the text, and to Mrs. Coolidge who compiled the material.] IT is one of the functions of a historical society to record history as it transpires. Here in Medford it is unfortunate that we have so few records of certain memorable periods of our past. In 1775 there was no historical society existing. Had there been, we might now read in the records of that day at what hour of the morning the Minute Men marched up the road toward Lexington, how far they advanced, and at what point they joined in the attack upon the British Regulars. Again we are unable to determine with certainty the builder of the famous Cradock house, or to demonstrate that Washington came to the Royall house. In later years there are like omissions. To prevent
1791 AD (search for this): chapter 1
e. Commerce increased prodigiously and premiums also [he was in the insurance business at a time when all underwriting was done by individuals at private offices, of which there were but three in Boston], owing to the captures and restraints of the powers of war, so that from June, 1793, to the peace of Amiens, I was more busily employed and perhaps more profitably than any young man of my acquaintance. . . . The funding system and the First National Bank were great objects of speculation in 1791, and about that period Mr. Brown [a trusted adviser] took no part in them himself, but urged me to, and I did to great advantage, for though I had little property then, he kindly offered to stand in as my surety to any amount. Now it was, what with my office and the funds, that I made money hand over hand. In June, 1803, I quitted the business of a private insurance office. . . . In 1806 I became the president of the New England Insurance Company and so remained about ten years, since which
1924 AD (search for this): chapter 1
of the Mystic Valley parkway. The Whitmore brook reservation was created in 1901 out of land presented to the Commonwealth by Peter C. and Shepherd Brooks. Brooks road, on the east side of the South Winchester reservoir, owes its plan and construction to the gift of the same two brothers in 1905. Shepherd Brooks made feasible for West Medford a suitable approach to Oak Grove cemetery, through the extension of Playstead road, and gave additional land for the enlargement of the cemetery. In 1924, the heirs of Shepherd Brooks, through his son Gorham Brooks, made a gift to the city of the Flat Iron lot on Grove street for a public park. In 1926 another portion of that estate was made over as a bird sanctuary open to the public, the latest of the many benefactions which are barely listed here. It was two hundred and sixty-seven years ago that the original estate came into the ownership of the Brooks family. In the course of those years it has been divided and subdivided. Much of
1652 AD (search for this): chapter 1
various local appointments of trust and honor. Although he had a large estate in Concord, he evidently wished to make further provision for his children. Accordingly, with his son-in-law, Timothy Wheeler, he invested four hundred and four pounds sterling in these acres in Medford—two-thirds for himself and one-third for Wheeler. Collins was already a large holder of land at Mystic. He lived for many years on Governor Cradock's plantation and purchased it from the heirs of the governor in 1652. It may have been that fact which led him to part with his holdings to the west. The deed from Collins gives in quaint and formal language the terms of the purchase. It reads in part as follows: Edward Collins merch't and Martha his wife. . . do fully clearly & absolutely grant bargain and sell alien enfeoffe and confirm under them ve said Thomas Brooks & Timothy Wheeler one Me ssuage or Tenement situate Lying and being within ye bounds of ye said plantation of Meadford (and lands adja
1926 AD (search for this): chapter 1
oks. Brooks road, on the east side of the South Winchester reservoir, owes its plan and construction to the gift of the same two brothers in 1905. Shepherd Brooks made feasible for West Medford a suitable approach to Oak Grove cemetery, through the extension of Playstead road, and gave additional land for the enlargement of the cemetery. In 1924, the heirs of Shepherd Brooks, through his son Gorham Brooks, made a gift to the city of the Flat Iron lot on Grove street for a public park. In 1926 another portion of that estate was made over as a bird sanctuary open to the public, the latest of the many benefactions which are barely listed here. It was two hundred and sixty-seven years ago that the original estate came into the ownership of the Brooks family. In the course of those years it has been divided and subdivided. Much of it has gone into other hands. Of the original domain there is still retained in the later generations of the family a generous spread of acres of both
January, 1783 AD (search for this): chapter 1
six per cent on an investment. He abstained as a rule from speculative investments and he never borrowed. What he could not compass by present means was to him interdicted. One feels that the stern Puritan spirit of father and ancestors spoke in this man also. One wonders how, with such conservative principles, he accumulated his fortune. When I came to Boston in 1782, he writes, the country was wretchedly poor. It was the last year of the war; peace was declared in State street in January, 1783, about a month after I came. My father had died the year before, my mother was left with her four children with nothing but the farm of little more than one hundred acres, and on this some debts were due and so remained until I was able to pay them. We had to struggle through as well as we could. No woman could have done better, if so well, as my good mother. She was a rare manager. She insisted on our grappling on without selling an acre. She had the pride that was a virtue. Happ
1915 AD (search for this): chapter 1
that church, however, brought him toil and trouble. His theology was of a more modern cast than that of his congregation, and he soon retreated to Medford, where he occasionally preached for the Rev. Ebenezer Turell. He also bought land in Medford of John Francis, Jr., on the west side of Grove street, and there occupied what may be called the fourth of the Brooks homesteads. This house stood just north of the later mansion built by his son, Peter C. Brooks, which in turn was torn down in 1915 to make way for the new development. The life of the Reverend Edward Brooks was characteristic of the period. The words of his son are well known, He was a high son of liberty and started off on horseback with his full-bottomed wig and his gun on his shoulder. He is said to have been active in the capture of a convoy of provisions at Menotomy about a mile from his own house, the convoy having been sent for the relief of the British troops farther up the Concord road. After the retreat o
May 16th, 1660 AD (search for this): chapter 1
f which passed to the first Brooks who became the owner of land in the present territory of Medford. Such was the surrounding country which to the extent of four hundred acres Thomas Brooks acquired by deed recorded at Cambridge on the 16th day of May, 1660, from Edward Collins. The land in question lay on both sides of the road to Woburn, now called Grove street but then, or shortly thereafter, known as the road through the woods. Thomas Brooks, it should be said, never settled in Medford.om all damage and costs by ye waters of ye Mill pond flowing on ye meadows appertaining to My. Symmes' Farm so farre as fifteen shillings per anno or three acres of Meadow will tend toward ye clearing of ye said Quarterpart. . . Cambridge ye 16th of May 1660. This witnesseth yt Edward Collins. . . do covenant, promise and grant to & with Thomas Brooks and Timothy Wheeler. . . that ye said Thomas Brooks and Timothy Wheeler. . . shall and may at all times and from time to time forever hereafter
... 8 9 10 11 12 13