Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 3.

[p. 81] and that said committee should possess discretionary power (subject to the fundamental principle of the Library) to accept or reject such books as should be offered for gift or deposit, and to act until in a meeting of the subscribers, a set of rules be formed and the proper officers be chosen by them for managing the concerns of the Institution.—The committee chosen were (from the Church) Brothers Jonathan Porter, Nathaniel Hall, Jonathan Brooks, Nathan Adams, John Symmes, jr., and (from the Cong.) Messrs. Dudley Hall, Turrell Tufts, Abner Bartlett, Joseph Swan, Ebenezer Hall, jr., and Isaac Sprague.

The meeting was then dissolved.

This last date, as you see, was September, 1825. I have been unable, as yet, to find any report of that committee as to the success of their mission; but there is in the possession of the Public Library the financial record of the Medford Social Library, from April, 1826, to January, 1856, at which latter date it became the property of the town and was made public. The presumptive evidence is that these records show the perfecting of the scheme for a Social Library above alluded to, as the names of the committee chosen by the church to perfect the undertaking are the same as those which first appear in the financial record. From these records it would seem that the library, during the first years of its existence, had its home in a room in some house, the occupant of the house acting, perhaps, as librarian; for I find as one of the first items (1826-1837), cash paid Mrs. Hepzibah Hall five dollars per year for rent of room. The first name which appears as librarian is that of Ebenezer Hall, 1827. A catalogue must have been published very soon, for in 1827 is to be found the following entry: ‘Paid Bowles Dearborn for catalogues, nine dollars.’ A copy of this catalogue I have been unable to find, but from Mrs. Susan M. Fitch we have received a copy of one containing the constitution,