Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 10.

Andover, February 20, 1790.

This may certify that Mr. Lemuel Cox was employed in erecting the Powder Mill at Andover in the year 1776 that he discovered great mechanical ingenuity and rendered essential service in executing that work.

Samuel Phillips, Jun.

Near the close of the Revolution, in October, 1782, we find Lemuel Cox was residing with his family at Taunton.

A petition signed by five hundred inhabitants of Boston resulted in a town meeting held Thursday, 10 February 1785, in Faneuil Hall, with Hon. Samuel Adams as moderator. The first article in the warrant was to consider a petition of Thomas Russell and others for liberty to build a bridge over Charles river, where the ferry from Boston to Charlestown then ran. A vote in favor was passed with only two dissenting among thirteen hundred voters present. It was also voted for a committee to prepare a petition to the General Court, and the town's representatives were instructed to support it. An act was passed, 9 March, 1785, by the legislature incorporating the scheme. John Hancock, Thomas Russell, Nathaniel Gorham, James Swan, Ebenr Parsons, and others, their associates, were those interested. The bridge was to be forty feet wide, with a draw at least thirty feet wide. They were to pay Harvard College annually £ 200, in compensation for the annual income of the Boston and Charlestown ferry. They were to receive certain tolls, which were to be double on Sunday.

Preparations for building the bridge were at once commenced. Major Samuel Sewall was appointed architect. He was of Marblehead and afterward, in 1814, chief justice of Massachusetts. At Concord, Massachusetts, however, there is the gravestone of Captain John Stone who died in 1791, which states he was the builder of the bridge. Lemuel Cox was appointed master workman.