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[58] the passage. Rival roads have lately deprived it of some of its former exclusive advantages. This was the first railroad made in New England for public travel. Its cost was enormous, and its rails were all laid on granite blocks. These have been found to wear the Machinery of the locomotives and cars so rapidly as to induce a substitution of wooden sleepers. The longest freight-train, drawn by one engine, that has passed loaded over the road, numbered one hundred and sixty-three baggage cars. The Medford Branch Railroad was incorporated March 7, 1845; and the names of the petitioners are James O. Curtis, Henry L. Stearns, Jos. Manning, jun., Daniel Lawrence, Nath. H. Bishop, and Andrew Blanchard, jun. Jan. 22, 1845: The town passed the following: “Resolved, as the sense of the people of Medford, that it is expedient that the prayer of the petitioners for a railroad to connect Medford with Boston be granted.” By the act of incorporation, “the capital stock shall not consist of more than one thousand shares at one hundred dollars each.” The Act further stated, “If the said railroad shall not be constructed within two years from the passage of this act, then the same shall be void.” It was readily finished, and proves to be a most productive and convenient road. The “Stoneham Branch Railroad Company” was incorporated May 15, 1851; Thaddeus Richardson, Amasa Farrier, and William Young, named as the corporation. Section 7th of the Act has the following condition: “The construction of the said road shall not be commenced until the capital named in the charter shall have been subscribed by responsible parties, and twenty per cent paid into the treasury of the said company.” This road was commenced and graded from Stoneham into the bounds of Medford, where its further construction suddenly stopped. That its proposed course through Medford may be changed, and the whole road then completed, is probable. The streets in Medford are, in most places, furnished with sidewalks and ornamented with elm-trees. It is cheering to see the spaces at the meeting of some roads occupied with trees. The delta of four hundred feet at the meeting of Grove and High Streets, in West Medford, was the first example. The trees were planted, and the fences made and maintained, by Hon. Peter C. Brooks. The town granted him permission, Nov. 22, 1822. A legacy of five hundred dollars
John Wilson and son. 22 School Street. Boston. 1855.
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