[p. 44]
High street about 1820.
Mr. Elijah B. Smith, who was born in
Medford, April 4, 1813, and died in that city, August 16, 1903, wrote, just before his death, a few recollections of the old homesteads in West Medford which were standing in his boyhood, and his notes form the basis of this article.
H. T.W.
ABOUT a hundred rods from Weir bridge, on the north side of High street was a small house owned by
Spencer Bucknam, occupied by
a Mr. Peirce, afterward by
Isaac Greenleaf for a few years, and then torn down.
Mr. Greenleaf lived afterward on Fulton street.
On the south side of the street was the
Payson farm of some fifty acres. The house and other buildings were a few rods from the
Middlesex Canal.
Elijah Smith and family occupied this place from 1800 to 1830.
Mr. Smith was born in
Lexington, Massachusetts.
He was six years old when the
battle of Lexington occurred, and he had a distinct remembrance of the event.
The
Payson farm being so near to the canal bridge,
Mr. Smith's house was free and open to passengers taking the boats.
Over the bridge crossing the canal lived Thomas Calfe, the gardener for
Peter C. Brooks.
This house was on the corner of Grove street.
An eighth of a mile further east lived
Miss Rebecca Brooks—‘Aunt Becky.’
Robert Caldwell lived in her house and carried on the farm.
This house was remodelled and used by
Mrs. T. P. Smith for a boarding school in the fifties.
The school was known as Mystic Hall Seminary for Young Ladies, and was very popular in its day.
Nearly opposite lived Miss Rebecca's brother Caleb, on the present site of the railroad station.
One of the first station agents of the Boston and Lowell railroad at West Medford lived there afterward.
He was known as ‘Dontey’
Green.
This house was destroyed by the great tornado.
A few rods beyond lived
Eleazar Usher, in the house owned by his brother-in-law,
Leonard Bucknam.
‘Uncle Leonard’ was the keeper of the almshouse.
