At the time of this sale James M. Usher was publishing the Nation in Boston, and in it there appeared an editorial notice of this enterprise, or ‘outlay,’ that is today, no less than then, interesting reading.
The sale was advertised by a folder, whose inner pages were a reprint of Mr. Usher's Nation article. A few months ago a lady, then resident in Medford, found one among her papers and sent it to the writer. It is the second paper alluded to, and revives a host of memories of the growth of this section of Medford.
Another sale followed in the autumn, and still another the next spring, with the same accompaniments. Some bought for investment, others for home sites, and the village began to grow. Within the limits of ‘Brooklands’ Medford has two schoolhouses. Seven churches have there been organized (though two are now nonexistent) and six houses of worship built. One was destroyed by fire and another devoted to secular use when outgrown. Two churches have rebuilt, one in another location, leaving four now in use in this tract we have described.
With the exception of Bellevue, each tract has been steadily increasing in population, and other estates have yielded to the incoming people in more recent years.
These six ‘outlays’ mark the real beginning of Medford's territorial development, and the reader can take ocular note of the same. During the Revolution there was but an increase of fourteen and in the Civil War but eight in Medford's population. In the twenty-six years following the Revolution the increase was about fifty per cent.; in the next half century, while the shipbuild-ing flourished, the population more than trebled, while in the forty years just past it has quadrupled. A glance at the following figures may be interesting to many, even though statistics are said to be dry reading:—
