FOOTNOTES:
[F] Boston: Roberts Brothers.
EDUCATION.
In determining a nation's place and power in the great work of modern civilization, it is not necessary to take into consideration the extent of its territory, the number of its population, the richness of its resources, the extent and prosperity of its commerce, the wealth of its people, the sufficiency of its naval and military defences, or even the form of its government and the character of its political institutions; the decision must mainly turn on the thoroughness, completeness, and comprehensiveness of its educational machinery and work. Judged by this standard the United States may fairly claim to be assigned a foremost place in the great community of enlightened and progressive modern peoples. It is very true that the high schools, colleges, and universities of the country cannot boast a great historic past; that they can scarcely be said to be so completely equipped and munificently endowed as many of the English and German seats of learning; but these disadvantages of a young and growing nation will, in course of time, diminish and disappear, while newer and happier educational methods, employed in a freer and more favorable field, will be sure to produce results not hitherto achieved in this most important department of human enterprise and activity.
The attention of the American nation is being turned, as never before, to the question of education; the wealth of the nation is being literally poured forth upon a scale and with a munificence unprecedented perhaps in the history of the world. "In the single decade, from 1870 to 1880," says Dr. Warren, President of the Boston University, in his report for the year 1884-85, "private individuals in the United States consecrated to educational purposes, by free gift and devise, more than thirty millions of dollars." This fact, taken in conjunction with the truly noble deed of "the Hon. Leland Stanford, who by one act set apart for the founding and equipping of a new University in California the magnificent endowment of twenty millions of dollars," speaks volumes. The educational future of America was never so full of promise as to-day.
HISTORICAL RECORD.
January 15.—Annual meeting of the American Statistical Society, at Boston. Officers were elected as follows: President, Francis A. Walker; vice-presidents, George C. Shattuck and Hamilton A. Hill; corresponding secretary, Edward Atkinson; recording secretary, Carroll D. Wright; treasurer, Lyman Mason; librarian, Julius L. Clarke; counsellors, J. R. Chadwick, Benjamin F. Nourse, John Ward Dean; committee on publication, R. W. Ward, Walter C. Wright, C. D. Bradlee; finance committee, Lyman Mason, D. A. Gleason, Otis Clapp. Edward Atkinson read a paper in which he discussed the question of the cost of living, and showed that the tendency, recent and present, has been, and is, an ameliorating one.
January 16.—The Salem Athenæum proprietors held a meeting to take action on the proposed consolidation of its library with the several other private collections, for the nucleus of a public library. The proposition had already been accepted by the Essex Institute, and a committee appointed to confer with other societies. There was some discussion, and a committee, consisting of William Mack, the Rev. E. B. Willson, John Robinson, T. Frank Hunt, and Charles Osgood, was chosen by a vote of 41 to 10 to carry out the project of consolidation.
January 18.—Annual meeting of the Webster Historical Society, at the Old South Meeting-house, in Boston. Officers were elected as follows:—
President, the Hon. Joshua L. Chamberlain, of Maine.
Vice-Presidents.—The Hon. Alexander H. Rice, Massachusetts; the Hon. George F. Edmunds, Vermont; the Rev. Noah Porter, Connecticut; the Hon. Henry Howard, Rhode Island; the Hon. Austin F. Pike, New Hampshire; the Hon. James G. Blaine, Maine; the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware; the Hon. William M. Evarts, New York; the Hon. J. Henry Stickney, Maryland; the Hon. D. W. Manchester, Ohio; the Hon. John Wentworth, Illinois; the Hon. Lucius F. Hubbard, Minnesota; the Hon. J. C. Welling, District of Columbia; the Hon. George C. Ludlow, New Jersey; General William T. Sherman, Missouri; Dr. Edward W. Jenks, Michigan; Capt. Clinton B. Sears, Tennessee; the Hon. Joseph B. Young, Iowa; the Hon. Horace Noyes, West Virginia; the Hon. James H. Campbell, Pennsylvania; the Hon. William H. Baker, New Mexico, and the Rev. Charles M. Blake, California.
Executive Committee.—The Hon. Stephen M. Allen, Edward F. Thayer, Nathaniel W. Ladd, the Hon. Edmund H. Bennett, and the Hon. Albert Palmer.
Finance Committee.—The Hon. Nathaniel F. Safford, William B. Wood, Henry P. Kidder, Edward F. Thayer, and the Hon. Alexander H. Rice.
Historiographers.—The Rev. William C. Winslow, the Rev. Edward J. Young, and the Rev. Thomas A. Hyde.
Committee on Future Work.—The Hon. Nathaniel F. Safford, the Hon. E. S. Tobey, Stillman B. Allen, the Hon. Mellen Chamberlain, and Thomas H. Cummings, Esq.
Treasurer.—Francis M. Boutwell.
Recording Clerk.—Nathaniel W. Ladd.
Corresponding Secretary.—Thomas H. Cummings.
Actuary.—William H. Colcord.
The annual address, entitled "Daniel Webster as an Orator," was then delivered by the Rev. Thomas Alexander Hyde.
January 18.—At Lowell, Mass., the Joint Special Committee of the City Council, appointed to consider the expediency of observing April 1, the fiftieth anniversary of the city's incorporation, by a formal celebration, decided that it was expedient. James Russel Lowell, who is a nephew of Francis Cabot Lowell, the founder of the city, will probably deliver the oration.
January 28, 29.—A serious ice-storm did great havoc among trees in many of the cities and towns of New England.
February 11.—Meeting of the Mass. Historical Society, the Rev. Dr. Ellis, the president, being in the chair. The death of Francis E. Parker, who had been for twenty-three years a member of the society, called forth earnest words from those who were intimately associated with him.
Mr. Quincy presented to the cabinet of the society a piece of Shakspere's mulberry-tree, which had been cut from a block that belonged to David Garrick, and was sealed with his seal (a head of Shakspere), as a witness of its authenticity. This block was presented to the distinguished actor by the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of Stratford, at the famous jubilee of 1769. Mr. Quincy gave a short sketch of Robert Balmanno, a Shaksperian scholar and collector, who possessed the original block, with Garrick's seal upon it, and whose affidavit is attached to the piece given to the society. The Hon. R. C. Winthrop presented to the society a large framed photograph of Daniel Webster, taken from an original crayon portrait which has been hanging on his own walls for forty years. The latter was drawn by Eastman Johnson at Mr. Winthrop's request, and at the very time that Healy was taking a likeness in oil for the royal gallery at Versailles. The sittings, which lasted about a week, were held in one of the old committee-rooms of Congress, down in the crypts of the Capitol. The crayon, when finished, elicited expressions of admiration from some of the most intimate friends of Mr. Webster, and it was afterwards lithographed; but this photograph is better, and is hardly less impressive than the original. The president read a letter of sympathy prepared to be sent to Gov. Hutchinson on his departure for England by some prominent citizens of Milton. An indignant protest from other citizens compelled the retraction of this letter before it was sent. These papers will appear in a history of Milton now in preparation. Mr. Deane offered a resolution from the Council that a committee be appointed to inquire into the value and extent of the labors of Mr. B. F. Stevens in publishing from the archives of the states of Europe the diplomatic correspondence and other papers relating to the United States between 1772 and 1784, and to report whether or not it be desirable for this society to take any action to encourage the work. Mr. Winsor and Dr. Green were appointed members of this committee. Dr. Moore moved that a letter once written by a committee of this society on the centennial celebration of the settlement of Boston, which does not appear on its records, be reproduced in the proceedings, since the action of this society was the first step which led to that interesting celebration.
February 13.—Meeting of the New England Historical Genealogical Society, President Wilder in the chair. The historiographer announced the decease of members, of which information had been received, viz.: Ashael Woodward, M.D., at Franklin, Conn., December 30, 1885; Ariel Low, at Boston, January 5, 1886; Nahum Capen, LL.D., at Dorchester, January 8; Francis Walker Bacon, at Boston, January 17; Edmund Batchelder Dearborn, at Boston, January 22; Henry Perkins Kidder, at New York, January 28. The corresponding secretary made a statement as to some of the more valuable gifts of books for the month, the donation of chief value being a full set of Force's "American Archives," from the Hon. M. P. Wilder. The secretary, the Rev. Mr. Slafter, also made a statement concerning the proposition recently made by Mr. Benjamin F. Stevens, an antiquarian of local celebrity, formerly resident in Vermont, but now in England. He has made a collection of titles of manuscripts relating to American affairs during the period from 1772 to 1784, which manuscripts are in the government archives of England, France, Holland, and Spain, and number 80,000 or more. Many of them are of the first historical importance, and have never been published. The proposition is that Congress shall be induced to take some measures for the printing of these indexes and the more important of the manuscripts. The society, on Mr. Slafter's motion, adopted a resolution in favor of the project, and appointed a committee to coöperate with other committees or societies in urging the matter at Washington. Mr. Slafter declined being chairman of the committee, and it was made up as follows: Abner C. Goodell, John Ward Dean, Albert H. Hoyt, Edmund F. Slafter, and Charles L. Flint. The historical essay of the session was read by Mr. S. Brainard Pratt, of Boston, and its subject was "The Bible in New England." In referring to the use of the Bible in the Sunday service, by reading of selections therefrom, he said this was for a long time resisted. The first reading of the kind was in the Brattle-street Church, in Boston, in 1699, and it was regarded as an audacious innovation, as savoring of Presbyterianism, and being but little better than Episcopalianism in disguise. The next church to adopt the practice was that of South Reading, in 1645, and the next was in 1669, when the Old South Church, in Boston, took up with it. The progress of the movement was very slow, as is indicated by these facts, and the fact that in the South Parish Church, of Ipswich, there was no reading of Scripture, as a part of the service, until the year 1826. The essayist said there have been 326 versions, of varying editions, of the New and Old Testaments, or both, published in New England, namely: In Rhode Island, 1; Maine, 12; Vermont, 18; New Hampshire, 25; Connecticut, 83; Massachusetts, 187. There yet remains one in manuscript, of great interest, which the enterprise and wealth of Boston have never yet given to the world in type. That is the version prepared by Cotton Mather, and the manuscript of which is in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
February 13-16.—Floods did great damage in Boston and other places in Eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
NECROLOGY.
January 16.—Death of Henry W. Hudson, LL.D., at Cambridge, from exhaustion following a slight surgical operation. He was one of the most noted Shaksperian scholars in the world. He was born in Cornwall, Vt., January 28, 1814. His early life was, like that of so many other Green Mountain boys, one of poverty, struggle for a livelihood and an education, till finally he had gained his much-coveted collegiate training, and began life as a teacher in the South. He became interested in Shakspere, studying the plays with only the slight aids then within his reach. Almost immediately he fell to work upon his critical analysis of the dramatist, which he delivered in the form of lectures at Huntsville, and afterwards at Mobile and Cincinnati. In the fall of 1844 he came to Boston, and was constantly engaged in delivering his Shaksperian lectures, during the following winter, in Boston and the chief neighboring cities. The succeeding year they were repeated in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. George S. Hillard, Theodore Parker, Dr. Chandler Robbins, and Mr. Emerson became deeply interested in him. His lectures were first published in 1848, and were dedicated to Richard H. Dana. Mr. Hudson was admitted to the diaconate in the Episcopal Church by Bishop Whittingham, in Trinity Church, New York, in 1849. He was still more or less engaged in literary pursuits, and in 1852 became and continued for nearly three years the editor of the Churchman, a weekly religious journal then published in New York. Subsequently he originated the Church Monthly, which he edited a year or two. His only parochial charge has been that of St. Michael's, Litchfield, Conn., assumed in 1858 and retained until 1860. It was in 1851 that his first edition of "Shakspere's Plays" appeared, in eleven volumes, after the form and style of the Chiswick edition of 1826. In 1852 he married Miss Emily S. Bright, daughter of Henry Bright, of Northampton. In 1862 he became chaplain in the New York Volunteer Engineers. From 1865 Mr. Hudson lived principally in Cambridge, frequently officiating in parish churches on Sundays, but principally devoting himself to the teaching of Shakspere and other English authors, in Boston and the immediate neighborhood. He was for a long time a lecturer on English literature at the Boston University. A few years ago he received the degree of LL.D., from Middlebury College. For two years he was the editor of the Saturday Evening Gazette. In 1870 Messrs. Ginn & Heath became his publishers, and brought out his "School Shakspere" in three volumes, containing seven plays each. In 1872 he put into two volumes the substance of his earlier volumes on "Shakspere's Characters," revising, condensing, rewriting his earlier work, parts of which he had outgrown, and presenting his final opinions, under the title of Shakspere's "Life, Art, and Characters," which he dedicated to his friend, Mr. Joseph Burnett, of Southboro'. It is but a few years since his "Harvard Shakspere" was brought out.
January 17.—Death of the Hon. Hosea Doton, of Woodstock, Vt., aged seventy-four. He was a man of wide reputation as a mathematician and civil engineer, and had long been in correspondence with leading scientists in different parts of the country. His work in determining altitudes of Vermont mountains is accepted as authority. For thirty-eight years he made astronomical calculations for the Vermont Register, also many years for the New Hampshire Register, and had long kept a meteorological record for the Smithsonian Institute.
January 18.—Death of the Rev. Jacob Hood, at his residence in Lynnfield. He passed his ninety-fourth birthday on Christmas-day last. He was born in Lynnfield, December 25, 1791, and moved to Salem in 1820, where he was master of the old East School in 1822, remaining until 1835, at a salary of $600 per year. He taught an old-fashioned singing-school in Salem from 1835 to 1850, and hundreds of his old pupils in Essex county delight to speak of him as "Master Hood." He returned to Lynnfield in May, 1865, where he had quietly resided since, respected and beloved by all around him.
Sudden death, in Boston, of Francis Edward Parker. He was the only son of the Rev. Dr. Nathan Parker, minister of the Unitarian Church at Portsmouth, N.H., and was born in that city, July 23, 1821. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, and from thence came to Harvard College, where he graduated in 1841 with the highest honors of his class. He studied his profession in the law-school at Cambridge, and in the office of the late Mr. Richard H. Dana, and on his admission to the bar, about 1846, he formed a professional connection with that gentleman which continued until Mr. Dana's appointment to the office of United States District Attorney, in 1861. He early gained a good position as a lawyer, but his tastes led him more to chamber practice and to the management of trust estates than to the conflicts of the court-room, although he never entirely gave up the latter. As a trust lawyer he stood in the front rank of the profession, and no one was intrusted with greater and more momentous interests, and no one's judgment was relied on with more implicit confidence on difficult and delicate questions. In 1865 he was a member of the State Senate. For many years he was a member of the School Committee and an Overseer of the Poor, and rendered efficient services in those positions. He was long an active officer of the Boston Provident Association, and at the time of his death had been for many years one of the most influential members of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University.
January 19.—Death, at Springfield, Mass., of Benjamin Weaver, one of the founders of the Springfield Union. He was the most active and influential Democrat in that city.
January 21.—The Hon. Samuel Metcalf Wheeler, a prominent citizen of Dover, N.H., died after a protracted illness. He was born in Newport, N.H., May 11, 1823; educated in the seminary at Claremont, N.H., the military academy at Windsor, Vt., and the Newbury Seminary; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1847; soon after moved to Dover, and became a partner with ex-Congressman Hall. In 1858 the partnership was dissolved. He represented Dover in the Legislature for five years; was a member of the Constitutional Convention, Speaker of the House; was a candidate for Congress in the Republican Convention in the First District, twice being defeated by only one vote, and he received the honorary degree of M.A. from Dartmouth. He was at one time president of the Dover National Bank.
January 23.—Death at Chester, Vt., of Deacon A. B. Martin, well-known and much respected through that region. He was aged sixty-three. He was formerly a member of the State Legislature, and had held a number of offices of trust.
January 28.—Death in New York of Henry P. Kidder, the Boston banker. He was born in Boston, in 1821. During his youth he received the common-school education of those days, displaying in his studies much of the keen sagacity and clearness of intellect which characterized his future business career. Although never a college student, he was always what may justly be termed a well-read man, and, indeed, a learned one. At fifteen years of age he went a mere boy into the wholesale grocery house of Coolidge & Haskell, a firm well-known to many of Boston's older residents. In his capacity as clerk he displayed a marked ability, and won for himself the commendation of his employers. In 1842 Charles Head obtained for him a position in the banking-house of John E. Thayer & Brother. In twelve years he became a partner, and so continued until 1865, when a new firm was started, under the present name of Kidder, Peabody, & Co. Twenty years of unexampled prosperity have placed it in the foremost rank of America's banking establishments.
Mr. Kidder always shrank from publicity, and led a thoroughly domestic life. He, however, was a Republican delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago in 1884. He was president of the American Unitarian Association, Treasurer of the Museum of Fine Arts, State Trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital, President of the Children's Mission, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Young Men's Christian Union, and was also connected with most of the charitable institutions and organizations of the city. He had been for many years one of the leading members of the South Congregational Church, and one of its committee, taking a most active part in the work of the society.
January 31.—Death, at Marblehead, of Adoniram C. Orne, a well-known and highly respected citizen of that town, at the age of 74. He was one of the earliest shoe-manufacturers in Marblehead, and a public-spirited citizen, many important local improvements having been suggested and carried into effect by his persistent efforts. He was a consistent advocate of temperance, and was the author of several statistical pamphlets on the subject, some of which are recognized as authority, and have a wide circulation.
February 7.—Death, at Worcester, of Hon. Peter C. Bacon, of the law firm of Bacon, Hopkins, & Bacon. He was born in Dudley, in 1804. He was the son of Jeptha Bacon. He graduated from Brown University in 1827, and later read law at the New Haven Law School, and in the office of Davis & Allen, in Worcester. He was admitted to the bar in 1830, and commenced to practise in his native place, but soon removed to Oxford, where he went into partnership with Ira M. Barton, who subsequently became Judge Barton. In 1845 Mr. Bacon came to Worcester, and had ever since been the leading member of the bar. Since his admission to the bar, fifty-six years ago, Mr. Bacon's office has been a training-school for the youth of the profession, and among his old students are reckoned some of the leading lawyers of the State. Nearly one-half the lawyers in Worcester were formerly students under him, and there is scarcely a State in the Union that has not some representatives from this great law-office.
February 7.—Death, in Boston, of John G. Webster. He was born at Portsmouth, N.H., on the 8th of April, 1811, and was, therefore, nearly 75 years of age. He was a distant kinsman of Daniel Webster. His paternal grandmother was a kinsman of John Locke, the English philosopher and metaphysician. His maternal ancestors, from whom he received his middle name,—the Gerrisbes,—emigrated from England to this country in 1640.
Mr. Webster's early education was in the schools of Portsmouth, N.H., and at a boarding-school of five hundred or six hundred boys, at South Berwick, Me., which he was obliged to leave at the age of fourteen to serve as clerk and book-keeper in a village store. In 1841 Mr. Webster came to Boston and joined his brother, David Locke Webster, who had for several years been engaged in the leather business, and they established the firm of Webster & Co., with a joint capital of $12,000; the same firm is still in existence, one of the oldest, if not the oldest in the same line of business in the city of Boston. In 1845 the firm built a tannery and leather manufactory in Malden, which covered about one acre of ground. The same business now occupies an area of between twelve and fifteen acres. Mr. Webster was in former years one of the most active business men in this vicinity, engaged in many other enterprises outside of his regular business. He was one of the incorporators of the Malden Bank; was its president for several years; was one of the incorporators of the Malden & Melrose Gas Company, and one of the Suffolk Horse Railroad Company, since consolidated with the Metropolitan, of which he was a director and the treasurer for some years. He was director and treasurer of the Boston, Revere Beach, & Lynn Railroad from its incorporation to the year 1880. He was a member of the City Council of Boston in 1855 and 1856. He represented his ward in the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1857, and again in 1880 and 1881.
Mr. Webster, when a young man, was in sympathy with the Whig party; but, on the organization of the Free Soil party, became its earnest supporter, and so continued until the formation of the Republican party, of which he remained an ardent advocate until the day of his death.
His only son, Frederick G. Webster, in the year 1863, while yet a minor, was tendered by Governor Andrew a commission as Lieutenant of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts,—Colonel Shaw's regiment,—one of the first regiments of colored troops organized in the country. He accepted his commission. Mr. Webster was too patriotic, too much devoted to the good cause, to withhold his consent that his son should enter the army, and the young man joined his regiment at Folly Island, South Carolina. In an engagement which occurred soon after the captain of the company was killed, and Lieutenant Webster took the place of his fallen superior, and his comrades testify that he filled it with intrepid courage and efficiency throughout the battle. Subsequently he fell sick with typhoid fever, was taken to the hospital at Beaufort, S.C., and there died, before his father could reach him. Mr. Webster leaves a widow and four grown daughters, sorrow-stricken at his sudden and unexpected decease.
Any one who knew Mr. Webster in connection with charitable and philanthropic work must testify to the gentle, loving kindness of his nature and to his ready sympathy with the sorrows and misfortunes of his fellow-creatures, and with every good work intended to ameliorate their condition. He was one of the original members of the Citizens' Law and Order League, was one of its first vice-presidents, and remained one of its officers to the day of his death. He was the treasurer of the National League, and the secretary bears testimony to his unfailing interest in the good work, to his thorough sympathy and hearty coöperation in all efforts to mitigate the evils of intemperance. No member of the League devoted more earnest zeal and self-sacrificing labor to promote the reforms initiated by the League. He was a member of the Public School Association, and a postal-card invitation to a meeting of that Association, on Saturday last, bore his name in connection with that of the Rev. Edward Everett Hale and several other gentlemen.
On Wednesday last Mr. Webster was out. On that evening he was feeling a little ill, and postponed engagements which he had made for Thursday. He supposed his illness only temporary, and expected to be out on Friday and again on Saturday. When his family retired Saturday night they bade him good-night, and he told them that he felt better. At three o'clock in the morning they were awakened, and, hurrying to his room, found that he apparently had difficulty about breathing, and in a few minutes he passed quietly away without speaking. Mr. Webster was a member of the New or Swedenborgian Church, and held to that faith very strongly. He was a believer that departed spirits still hover about their friends and assist them in the good which they are endeavoring to accomplish. If such be the case, many a good cause in Boston to-day is being helped by his presence, although he is gone from us forever.
IN OLDEN TIMES.
In Wickford, Rhode Island, is what is claimed to be the oldest Episcopal church in America. It was built in 1707, and was once stolen and transported a distance of seven miles. It was originally built on what was then called McSparren Hill, but in the course of seventy-five years the population had changed so that most of the worshippers came from Wickford, seven miles away. The proposition to remove the church was first made at a vestry meeting, but was so bitterly opposed by the few members who yet remained on McSparren Hill that the Wickford faction resolved on a coup d'état. The road from where the church stood to Wickford was all down hill. They mustered their forces one evening, collected all the oxen in the vicinity, placed the house on wheels, and, while the opposing faction were soundly sleeping in their beds, hauled the holy edifice to the spot where it now stands, and where it has since remained. As it was utterly impossible to move the house back up the hill again, the surprised hill residents could only vent their rage in unchurchly language. Although the old building is still standing, the present society worship in a more modern edifice.
The house built by Elnathan Osborn, in 1696, still stands in Danbury, Connecticut. One of the Osborns was six years old when General Tryon's British troops visited the place. The lad came home from school to find the house full of redcoats. They were making free with the contents of the buttery. The boy attempted to back out, when one of the men called to him, "Come in, lad, we won't hurt you." "Is there any cider in the house?" asked the soldier. The boy took out a large wooden bowl, went down cellar, and filled it several times with apple juice for the men. When the British fired the village, a few hours later, there was no torch applied to the home of Elnathan Osborn. The house still stands at the foot of Main street. It is a low, hip-roofed house, studded with enormous beams, and lighted with tiny diamond window-panes.
The oldest building in Boston is said to be the one which stands at the corner of Moon and Sun Court streets. It was built in 1677, and conveyed by Benjamin Rawlings to Ralph Barger, February 8, 1699, for £45, New England currency, as per record in Registry of Deeds, lib. 19, fol. 270.
John Hollis, Braintree, who died in 1718, left, as is recorded in the inventory of his estate, "one baptising suit."
Edwin D. Mead, of Boston, is to give a course of six lectures on "The Pilgrim Fathers," before the students of Bates College at Lewiston, Me. The lectures will begin March 1, and will be open to the public.
The New Haven Colony Historical Society has for its officers Simeon E. Baldwin president, ex-Governor English vice president, Thomas R. Trowbridge, Jr., secretary, Robert Peck treasurer, and a board of twenty-five directors.
A lively discussion has been started as to which is the oldest church in Connecticut. Stamford claims that its church that just celebrated its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was the first organized on Connecticut soil. An old pastor of the First Church of Hartford writes to claim that that church was organized in 1633, and that the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was celebrated in 1883. Stamford does not deny that the Hartford Church may have been organized in 1633, but says it was not in Connecticut at that time.
Hartford, Conn., has a public library of thirty-six thousand volumes, but it costs anybody five dollars a year to get books out of it, and there are only six hundred people in the whole city who care to pay that price for its privileges.