[p. 68]
Strangers in Medford, (continued from vol. 4, no. 2).
Names. | From. | Date. | Warned out. | Remarks. |
Chandler, Ballard | | | Jan. 30, 1791 |
Christian, John | | | Jan. 30, 1791 |
Clark, Sarah | Boston, | Sept. 27, 1766 | May 16, 1767 |
Clark (two children) | Boston. | May 27, 1772 | | Children of Elizabeth Clark. |
| Jan. 2, 1773 | | In family of Wm. Henderson. |
Clisby, Joseph | | | | ‘Not to be rated. . . in this town which I lately lived in,’ Apr. 30, 1790. |
Clisby, Joseph | | | Jan. 30, 1791 | Cooper. |
Coffin, Samuel | | | Aug. 31, 1797 |
Collins, Richard (wife) | London | June 26, 1756 | | Peruke Maker. |
| Boston | | In house of Israel Mead. |
Conory, Daniel | Stoneham, | May 8, 1764. | Mar. 1, 1765 | Brother of Isaac Conory. |
Conory,1 Isaac Sarah (mother) Hannah Sisters Lydia | Stoneham, | May 8, 1764 | Mar. 1, 1765 |
Conory, Peter | Stoneham, | May 8, 1764 | Mar. 1, 1765 | Brother of Isaac. |
| | | | Jan. 30, 1791 |
Convers, Ebenezer | | | Aug. 31, 1797 |
Convers, James | | | Aug. 31, 1797 |
Convers, Joseph | | | Aug. 31, 1797 |
Cook, Isaac | Charlestown, | Mar., 1771 | | In family of Nathan Tufts, Jr. |
Cook, Joseph wife and children | | | Dec., 1759 | ‘Taken in by Capt. Whitmore.’ |
[p. 69]
Cook, Joseph, Jr. Margery (wife) a boy | Cambridge, May 10, 1756 | Nov. 27, 1756 | Tenant of Joseph Tufts. |
Cook, Joseph Margery (wife) Isaac Abigail Children | Charlestown, May, 1759 | Nov. 21, 1759 |
Cook, Joseph Isaac Abigail Children ‘and the others’ | Bowdoinham at the Eastward, May or June, 1766 | Nov. 8, 1766 |
Cook, Lydia | | Feb. 1, 1780 |
Cook, Mary | Charlestown, Nov. 25, 1766 | May 16, 1767 | ‘Young child’ in family of Benjamin Teel. |
Copeland, James | | Aug. 31, 1797 |
Corey, Thomas | | Jan. 30, 1791 |
Corrigell, James Elizabeth (wife) | Boston, July 2, 1760 |
Crane, David | | Jan. 30, 1791 |
Cowen, Elizabeth | Maiden, Sept. 3, 1758 | | Maid in family of Simon Tufts. |
Cozens, Nathaniel Rebecca (wife) and a child | | Nov. 29, 1754 |
Cristie, Martha | | | Notice from Town of Boston, Aug. 27, 1803. |
Crocker, John and family | Stoneham | Feb. 26, 1755 |
[p. 70]
Names. | From.
Date. | Warned out. | Remarks. |
Crowell, Aaron wife and family | | July 10, 1751 |
Crowell, Robert wife and family | | July 10, 1751 |
Cutter, David | Woburn abt. May 18, 1757 | Feb. 8, 1758 | ‘Taken in by Wm. Faulkner’ |
Mary (wife) one child | | | ‘To James Long's farm of Medford.’ |
Cutter, Elizabeth | Woburn, on or before Dec. | | Widow ; in family of Sarah Cutter. |
Cutter, Polly | | Jan. 30, 1791 |
Rebecca | | Jan. 30, 1791 | Widow. |
Darby, James | | Jan. 30, 1791 |
Darling, John Mary (wife) John, Jr. Mary Thankful Lydia Eunice | | Aug. 10, 1777 |
Davis, Abel | | Jan. 30, 1791 |
Davis, Elizabeth | Woburn Precinct,2 Nov. 15, 1755 | | In service to Timothy Hall. |
Davis, Elizabeth | | Jan. 30, 1791 |
Davis Lucy | Charlestown, May 21, 1759 | Sept. 5, 1759 | In service to Zebulon May. |
In service to Benj. Pierce. |
[p. 71]
Delahunt, Elizabeth | Boston, | Oct. 12, 1770 | | Housekeeper for Col. Royal |
Dexter, Timothy | | | Jan. 30, 1791 |
Dickson, Jonathan Martha (wife) Benjamin3 (nurse child) | Cambridge, | May 26, 1772 | | In house of Richard Crease. |
Dike, Jonathan | (See John Adams) |
Dixon, Josiah Hannah (wife) | Charlestown, | Apr., 1755 | Dec. 1, 1755 |
Dix, Sarah | (See Sarah Reed) |
Dogget, widow of Isaac Bathsheba (daugh'r) | Braintree | | Feb. 26, 1755 |
Dolbeir, Susannah | Boston, | May 17, 1758 | Nov. 27, 1758 | Servant of Thos. Seccomb. |
Dorumpel,4 Robert | Newtown, | May 15, 1764 | | In family of Timothy Tufts. |
Dunster, Rebecca | ‘Masson town,’ | June 6, 1770 | | In family of Joseph Tufts. |
Eades, Josiah (?) | Watertown, | June 21, 1755 | | Orphan.
Age 16.
Apprentice to Ebenr. Tidd. |
Eastabrooks, Nehemiah wife and child'n | | | Jan. 30, 1791 | Distiller. |
Emerson, Abigail | Cambridge, | Mar. 27, 1754 | Feb. 26, 1755 | In service to Zacheriah Poole. |
English, William | | | Aug. 31, 1797 |
Evens, Anna | Wilmington, | Sept. 17, 1765 | Sept. 1, 1756 | In service to Hezekiah Blanchard. |
Farley, Mary | Billerica, | Aug. 12, 1765 | Feb. 24, 1766 | In family of Aaron Blanchard. |
Farrington, Daniel | | | 5Jan. 30, 1791 |
Fillebrown, James | Cambridge, | Mar. 10 1766 | May 16, 1767 | Apprentice to Nath'l Pierce. |
2, 1767 |
[p. 72]
‘Over the Hill to the poorhouse.’
‘
THE poor ye have always with you’ is amply exemplified in town records from the earliest times.
The meeting-house, the minister, and the town charges furnish the bulk of subject matter for the early books.
One cannot read these ancient documents without realizing the truth of a recent newspaper squib, ‘It is easier for one parent to support ten children than for ten children to support one parent.’
Children were often paid for boarding their aged fathers or mothers.
In one pitiful case several sons out of a large family absolutely refused to do anything for their mother's support.
For this article we have not gleaned from ancient records, but from a little book tucked away on an upper shelf at City Hall, inscribed on the first page, ‘Doings of the Overseers of the Poor for the
Town of Medford, 1811.’
From this first page we learn that, at that time, there was no almshouse in use in the town, and the paupers were boarded out. We can imagine the comforts the poor creatures enjoyed when we read that the price paid for board was thirty-three cents a week in addition to whatever labor the dependent could furnish.
In the latter part of 1811 the town poor were returned to
Medford from
Woburn, where they had been quartered, and
Leonard Buckman took the contract to board the grown people at one dollar per week.
These were doubtless too decrepit to be capable of labor.
The annual report of the overseers in 1812 states that there were thirty-six persons supported by the town, beside children boarded in families.
The cost for the support of the town poor for the preceding year was $1359.80, ‘as near as can be calculated.’
December 3, 1812, Benjamin Young, as keeper of the new workhouse, was allowed for his services, and those of his wife, at the rate of two hundred fifty dollars per annum.
By the
[p. 73] terms of the agreement, Young was to maintain himself and family, and to have house rent and the use of the kitchen fire.
In 1813, thirty-three persons were supported wholly by the town, and thirteen assisted.
The families of soldiers of 1812 were grudgingly granted aid, for
Medford, led by their pastor,
Rev. David Osgood, was bitterly opposed to the war. One man is referred to as being, not in the army of the United States, but ‘in
Mr. Madison's army.’
September 23, 1815, a great gale passed over West Medford and nearly wrecked the poorhouse, together with many other buildings, blowing down the chimneys and breaking the windows.
This house, or a portion of it, is still standing on Canal street, and has lately become a home for aged inventors.
The unfortunate, the decrepit, the lazy, the vicious, and the insane were housed ninety years ago under the workhouse roof.
In 1816 it was voted by the selectmen that a new place ‘for the better security and comfort’ of one of the last named class be built in the cellar.
In 188, by act of Congress, soldiers of the Revolution received pensions, and at that time a little group of veterans left the poorhouse to maintain themselves on this slender stipend.
Others, too feeble to shift for themselves, remained behind, their pensions being used for their benefit by the overseers.
A set of rules for the government of the poorhouse was promulgated in 1818, and the first one was, ‘If any will not work, neither shall he eat.’
And what kind of fare was he deprived of if he persisted in being lazy?
In 1820, by act of the General Court, an adult pauper was allowed one dollar per week for support, and a child fifty cents a week.
In order to bring expenses within the proper limit, the following bill of fare was presented to
Leonard Bucknam, the keeper, to be rigidly followed.
Dinners for a week: two of baked or stewed beans,
[p. 74] two of soup, two of fish, or pudding with milk or molasses, and one of boiled victuals.
Breakfasts and suppers: once a week tea, or coffee of peas, rye, or barley; all the rest, pudding with milk or molasses, or milk porridge, one third milk.
In 1829,
Deacon Galen James, a strong total abstinence advocate, became chairman of the board, and stringent rules were laid down concerning strong waters, which many of the occupants of the poorhouse craved.
The overseers of the poor of
Medford were always chosen from her most prominent citizens, and they doubtless administered affairs in their charge in as fair a manner as their resources and the customs of the day warranted; but, nevertheless, the workhouse was a nightmare in those days to many a poor soul battling with poverty.
There was only one deeper abyss of misery, and that was imprisonment for debt in the common gaol.
The
New York Genealogical and Biographical Record for April prints a sketch, with portrait, of
Heber Reginald Bishop, who died in New York, December 10, 1902.
Mr. Bishop was born in
Medford, March 11, 1840, and was the youngest son of
Nathaniel Holmes Bishop and
Mary Smith Farrar.
He was educated at the
Medford High School and at the academy in
North Yarmouth, Maine.
In 1856, he began his business career, and five years after was the head of a prosperous house in
Cuba, where he remained until 1876, when he returned to this country.
He then became interested in some of the largest enterprises in New York city, and spent his leisure time in travelling and collecting art treasures from all lands.
Mr. Bishop presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art one of the finest collections of jade in existence.
In 1902 he completed an illustrated catalogue of it, which is also a valuable book of reference.
[p. 75]