History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

hundred and three others, of Medford. At a town-
meeting, held inWoburn, February 7, 1850, it was
" Voted, That tlie town is willing that the prayer of
tlie petition should be granted on just and equitable
terms, to be agreed upon by a committee from each
part of the town."
Tiierewas a long and protracted hearing before the
committee of the legislature, and the committee went
out and viewed the site of the proposed town from
the hill in the rear ofJ. F. Stone's present residence
on Main Street. The hill was then crowned with
a summer-house, owned by and on the premises of
Charles Mclntier. It required but one visit to
satisfy the committee that the town ought to be
incorporated, and it soon after reported a bill
to that effect. Additional petitions and remon-
strances in regard to the matter were introduced
and laid on the table after the bill was re-
ported to the house, and the town records say,
*' There probably never has been a case of the kind
accompanied by such constant, earnest, and wholesale
lobbying " in opposition to the measure. The
bill was vigorously opposed in the house by rep-
resentatives Hoar of Concord, Hopkins of North-
ampton, and Gray of Boston. The town records
further say : " The town should never forget the
services of S. N. GifFord, the chairman of the
committee on towns on the part of the house,
or Mr. Plimpton, of the same committee, in
support of the bill." The bill finally passed both
branches, and was signed by the governor, April
30, 1850.
One remarkable feature of this act of incorpora-
tion was that not a dollar was spent to influence
legislation, except the employment of eminent coun-
sel to argue the cause.
May 7, 1850, the first town-meeting was held,
and Nathan B. Johnson, Loring Emerson, and
John Symmes were chosen selectmen. Mr. Symmes
declined, and Charles Mclntier was chosen in his
place; David Youngman was chosen town-clerk;
Samuel B. "White, treasurer; John M. Steele,
Charles Goddard, and Frederick O. Prince, school
committee.
At a town-meeting, May 27, 1850, a letter was
received from Colonel W. P. Winchester, enclosing
his check for three thousand dollars, in token of his
appreciation of the honor conferred upon his family
name, which sum was to be appropriated towards
the erection of a town-hall, or any other proper
object of municipal expenditure. The gift was
WINCHESTER. 513
vestment until some disposition of it should be
determined upon.
The death of Colonel Winchester occurred xVu-
gust 6, 1850, at the age of forty-nine years, and
appropriate resolutions in relation to it were after-
wards adopted by the town and entered upon its
records. From the numerous tributes which the
decease of Colonel Winchester called forth, the
following extracts from one written by a well-known
literary gentleman is selected, to show somewhat
of the character of the man whose name the town
bears :
accepted, and placed in the hands of trustees for inpeared not to think of his own accommodation, or
—
-
" Seldom are the same rare qualities united in
any one person which shone so conspicuously in
every feature of his character and in every act of
his widely extended career. With large means
of usefulness, the first and most constant thought
of his life was to make others happy.
" As a husband and father he was the idol of the
domestic circle, where the genial and affectionate
qualities of his disposition were manifested in the
most striking manner. Kind and indulgent to
the utmost degree, he was the centre around which
the sweetest and most tender ties of home were all
united.
" In his business relations he was, of course,
more widely known. Gifted with a foresight and
sagacity which never failed to see results in their
causes, his opinions were always sought with in-
terest, and received with deference and respect.
Rarely did he fail to anticipate the more important
fluctuations of mercantile affairs, and to predict
not only the cause of the crisis, but its continuance
and its cure. And the untiring industry which he
brought to the conduct of his own widely extended
aff'airs, added to the firmness and self-reliance of
his character, enabled him through many years
to conduct with perfect success a business second
in importance to none of those which have so ex-
tended the wealth and elevated the social influence
of Boston.
" As a friend he was most ^videly known and
most universally beloved. Warm in liis attach-
ments, unremitting in his kindness, and thoughtful
even in the smallest acts of attention, none were
ever admitted to his iiitimacy without placing him
first on the list of those who were felt to be most
valued and cherished from their own intrinsic
worth and virtue. In his own house his hospitality
was unbounded, and not less cordial and graceful
than constant and profuse. At all times he ap