Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 3.

[p. 170] eminent divine of New York City. Replying to my question of ‘What luck?’ he said, ‘It beat all’ (a favorite expression of his). ‘The cod and haddock were so thick swimming about the boat that you could scoop them up with your hands.’ The surprised look of Dr. Adams I shall never forget, but it did not induce the Deacon to qualify his description. He told me one day of his experience in haying. He said that in the morning there were indications of thunder-storms, and having considerable hay mown, he was determined to get it in, if possible, before it rained. He said ‘it beat all’ how hard he worked. He succeeded in housing the hay, but was completely drenched with perspiration, and when he took off his clothes he threw his shirt down, and it struck the floor like a green calf-skin. As the Deacon was at one time a dealer in hides and skins, he was familiar with their solid nature. The last time I saw the Deacon alive he was standing by the platform in Boston, in the old station in Haymarket Square, in deep meditation. He told me he was thinking that it was only a few years ago when there was not a railroad in existence, and now no one could go a rod without stumbling over forty of them.

I have stated briefly a few facts and some original sayings of this highly respected citizen, leaving to more competent hands a fitting account of his life and character, and would simply submit this incomplete narrative as a nucleus for some able writers of this Society to enlarge upon, and to do justice to one of Medford's old and prominent residents, promising to assist in finding or to give any information which I have or can obtain to aid them in the undertaking.