ANNUAL MEETING, NOVEMBER, 1922

    THE Annual Meeting of the Society was held at the Algonquin Club, No. 217 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, on Tuesday, 21 November, 1922, at half-past six o’clock in the evening, the President, Fred Norris Robinson, Ph.D., in the chair.

    The Records of the last Stated Meeting were read and approved.

    The Annual Report of the Council was presented on behalf of the Rev. Dr. Charles Edwards Park:

    REPORT OF THE COUNCIL

    Of the five stated meetings during the year, four have been held in the house of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, whose hospitality is graciously continued to us and gratefully acknowledged. The fifth meeting, that of April, was held at the home of our Treasurer, Henry H. Edes. A number of valuable papers and communications have been presented, and will appear in a forthcoming volume of the Society’s Transactions.

    The Editor reports that despite appearances the year has been one of marked progress in the publication work of the Society. No volume has been issued since the last annual meeting, but five volumes are at present going through the press, two of which may be expected to appear in the spring and the remaining three just as speedily as is consistent with accurate and thorough editorial work. Volumes XV and XVI, containing Harvard College records, will be taken in hand this winter and pushed to completion. Volume XXIII, containing the second half of the Plymouth Church Records, and Volume XXIV, of Transactions to January, 1922, are nearly ready and will be distributed in the spring unless the printers see fit to organize another strike. Volume XXV, containing Transactions since January, 1922, will of course have to wait until a sufficient number of meetings has been held to fill it up. It is in type to about page 80, which means that the transactions are editorially up to date at this moment.

    The Society is reminded that the cost of publishing a single volume is at present about $4000. Our annual income from all sources, including special contributions to the Editor’s salary, is a trifle over $9000. Deducting salaries and incidental expenses including the annual dinner, about $5500 a year is left for publication expenses. It is manifestly impossible to publish at the rate of two or more volumes a year on an income that warrants only one volume and a quarter a year. As in many other enterprises, our usefulness is limited by our resources. Members of the Society can help by transmuting their annual dues to the life membership basis. To do this adds $100 to the Society’s endowment and frees the member from all further dues.

    The year has been saddened by the death of the Society’s founder, who was also our Treasurer, and our never-failing source of energy and enthusiasm: Henry Herbert Edes. At their last stated meeting your Council adopted the following minute:

    The passing of Henry Herbert Edes, which occurred on the 13th of October, brought sorrow to the heart of every member of the Council. Founder of the Society, its Treasurer from the beginning, sole survivor but one of the original Council, seldom absent from a meeting, he brought to our deliberations a deep knowledge of the needs of such a society, an experience of thirty years, and a profound and touching interest in the fortunes of the Society, over which he watched as a parent his child. No detail was too trivial, no labor however irksome was shirked, in an endeavor to forward the welfare of the Society. To him, in collaboration with the late John Wilson, is due the beautiful format of the Society’s Publications. His earnestness, sincerity, and boundless enthusiasm were infectious, and doubtless were responsible for the success his appeals rarely failed to meet with. Beneath his dominant personality was a tenderness perhaps unsuspected by the stranger or casual acquaintance, but well known to his intimates, to whom he never tired of showing kindnesses. His cordial welcome at our meetings, his emphatic expressions of opinion, his vigorous and outspoken comments on men and things, his inexhaustible fund of amusing and entertaining anecdotes of noted Boston worthies, his reluctant farewell—these will dwell always in our memories.

    Acting under Chapter IV, Article 2, of the By-Laws of the Society, the Council elected Mr. William Crowninshield Endicott to fill the vacancy in the office of Treasurer, occasioned by the death of Mr. Henry Herbert Edes.

    Elections to membership during the year have been as follows: Resident Members:

    • Wilbur Cortez Abbott,
    • George Pomeroy Anderson,
    • Walter Austin,
    • Francis Tiffany Bowles,
    • Homer Gage;

    Corresponding Members:

    • James Benjamin Wilbur,
    • John Pierpont Morgan;

    and Honorary Member:

    • John Singer Sargent.

    Losses by death during the year have been as follows:

    Lincoln Newton Kinnicutt: Loyal, gentle, unassuming, true-hearted, a man of great natural chivalry of soul: a champion of the weak, a lover of children and animals, a man to be loved instinctively and admired without effort.

    Edward Mussey Hartwell: Secretary of the Statistics Department of the City of Boston. The mention of this office gives no indication whatever of the value of his services to City and Nation. He was teacher, physician, statistician, investigator, and writer. It was his aim in life to better the conditions of those who needed help: children and the laboring class, invalids and the blind. His kindliness was genuine; he was modest without affectation; he was manly and therefore lovable; he endeared himself greatly to those who knew him, for his friendship was life-long and was a constant source of helpfulness and cheer.

    Williston Walker: Provost of Yale University and Professor of Church History. Of the highest scholarly attainments and a recognized authority in his chosen field, he was yet without any trace of intellectual arrogance. His friendship and help were always available. In his absorption in history, he never lost sight of the purpose of historial knowledge, the guidance and enrichment of human life in the years to come.

    Richard Middlecott Saltonstall: In him the nobler traits of a distinguished ancestry found their full embodiment. He was a man of great sagacity and breadth of interest, whose skill in practical affairs was enlivened by a capacity for harboring noble visions and dreaming great dreams; and whose worldly interests were brightened by singularly clean pleasures and profitable hobbies. His work was play to him, and his play had ever its more serious, more useful side.

    Henry Herbert Edes: Founder of this Colonial Society and from the first its Treasurer. His best tribute is written within the hearts of his associates, and his constant devotion and untiring enthusiasm have their most eloquent memorial in this Society which owes to him its existence and prosperity. We contemplate his death with emotions of grief mingled with a sort of terror, for the efficiency with which he prosecuted his many purposes makes his loss well-nigh irreparable.

    The Treasurer submitted his Annual Report, as follows:

    REPORT OF THE TREASURER

    In accordance with the requirements of the By-Laws the Treasurer submits his Annual Report for the year ending November 16th, 1922.

    CASH ACCOUNT

    RECIEPTS

    Balance, November 16, 1921

     

    $103.13

    Admission Fees

    $50.00

     

    Annual Assessments

    620.00

     

    Commutation from one member

    100.00

     

    Sales of the Society’s Publications

    103.60

     

    Contribution from a member

    10.00

     

    Editor’s Salary Fund, subscriptions

    800.00

     

    Interest

    7,620.09

     

    Henry H. Edes, demand loan

    300.00

     

    Mortgages, discharged or reduced

    $9,250.00

     

    Horace Everett Ware Fund

    568.13

     

    $5,000 American Agricultural Chemical Company Bonds, sold

    5,001.25

     

    5,000 New York Telephone Company Bonds, sold . . .

    4,425.00

     

    5,000 Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company Bonds, sold

    5,100.00

     

    5,000 Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault St. Marie Bonds, sold

    5,181.25

     

    5,000 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Joint Bonds, sold

    5,237.50

     

    5,000 New England Telephone and Telegraph Co. Bonds, sold

    4,875.00

    $49,241.82

       

    $49,344.95

    DISBURSEMENTS

    University Press

    $444.60

     

    A. W. Elson & Company, photogravure

    207.04

     

    Folsom Engraving Company

    38.56

     

    Boston Storage Warehouse Company

    30.00

     

    Union Safe Deposit Vaults

    20.00

     

    Stewart, Watts & Bollong, Auditing

    10.00

     

    American Academy of Arts & Sciences, fuel, lights and janitor service

    20.00

     

    Salary of the Editor

    1,000.00

     

    Annual dinner

    385.05

     

    Consolidated Index to Volumes 1–25

    211.50

     

    Clerk hire

    100.00

     

    J. Franklin Jameson, annual subscription toward the Bibliography of American Historical Writings

    50.00

     

    Interest paid on loan and in adjustment

    1,633.11

     

    Conveyancers Title Insurance Co., stamps

    16.18

     

    Henry H. Edes, demand loan

    300.00

     

    $5,000 Pennsylvania Railroad Equipment Trust Bonds

    5,000.00

     

    5,000 Cedar Rapids Manufacturing and Power Company Bonds

    4,450.00

     

    5,000 New York Edison Company Bonds

    5,000.00

     

    5,000 Detroit Edison Company Bonds

    4,400.00

     

    10,000 Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault St. Marie, F. M. Refunding Bonds

    10,000.00

     

    5,000 Oregon Washington Railroad and Navigation Bonds

    4,105.00

     

    5,000 New England Telephone and Telegraph Bonds

    4,875.00

     

    5,000 Cleveland Union Terminals Company Bonds

    4,980.00

    $47,276.04

    Balance on deposit in State Street Trust Company, November 16th, 1922

     

    2,068.91

       

    $49,344.95

    The funds of the Society are invested as follows:

    • $31,250.00 in First Mortgages payable in gold coin, on unproved property in Greater Boston
    • 85,892.50 in Bonds elsewhere described in this report having a face value of $95,000.00
    • 25.00 on deposit in the Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston
      • $117,167.50

    The investments of the Society yield an average annual income of upwards of 6%.

    The bonds bought during the year are all of high grade and many have been purchased at prices below par, so that at maturity our bond securities will furnish an addition of over $9000 to the principal of the Society’s Endowment.

    A Trial Balance of the accounts as of November 16th, 1922, is hereto annexed and made a part of this Report.

    William C. Endicott

    Treasurer

    Boston, November 16th, 1922

    TRAIL BALANCE

    DEBITS

    Cash

    $2,068.91

     

    Income

    419.34

    $2,488.25

    Mortgages

    $31,250.00

     

    Provident Institution for Savings

    25.00

     

    $20,000

    Western Telephone & Telegraph Co. Bonds

    16,960.00

     

    5,000

    Union Pacific Railroad Equipment Trust Company Bonds

    5,000.00

     

    5,000

    Wickwire-Spencer Company’s Bonds

    5,000.00

     

    10,000

    Detroit Edison Company Bonds

    8,797.50

     

    5,000

    Chicago Junction Railways and Union Stock Yards Company Bonds

    3,762.50

     

    5,000

    United Electric Securities Corporation Bonds

    3,750.00

     

    5,000

    Northwestern Bell Telephone Company Bonds

    4,862.50

     

    5,000

    Philadelphia Company Bonds

    4,350.00

     

    5,000

    Pennsylvania Railroad Equipment Trust Bonds

    5,000.00

     

    5,000

    Cedar Rapids Manufacturing and Power Company Bonds

    4,450.00

     

    5,000

    New York Edison Company Bonds

    5,000.00

     

    5,000

    Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault St. Marie Bonds

    5,000.00

     

    $5,000

    Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company Bonds

    $4,105.00

     

    5,000

    New England Telephone & Telegraph Company Bonds

    4,875.00

     

    5,000

    Cleveland Union Terminals Company Bonds

    4,980.00

    $117,167.50

    $95,000

       

    $119,655.75

    CREDITS

    Henry H. Edes

     

    $4,500.00

    Editor’s Salary Fund

    $1,000.00

     

    Publication Fund

    10,000.00

     

    Benjamin Apthorp Gould Memorial Fund

    10,000.00

     

    Edward Wheelwright Fund

    20,000.00

     

    Robert Charles Billings Fund

    10,000.00

     

    Robert Noxon Toppan Fund

    5,000.00

     

    Robert Charles Winthrop, Jr. Fund

    3,000.00

     

    Andrew McFarland Davis Fund

    2,000.00

     

    William Watson Fund

    1,000.00

     

    Horace Everett Ware Fund

    3,253.00

     

    General Fund

    19,902.75

     

    George Vasmer Leverett Fund

    30,000.00

    115,155.75

     

    $119,655.75

    Boston, November 16th, 1922

    REPORT OF THE AUDITING COMMITTEE

    The undersigned, a Committee appointed to examine the Accounts of the Treasurer for the year ending 16 November, 1922, have attended to their duty and report, that they find the accounts correctly kept and properly vouched, and that proper evidence of the investments and of the balance of cash on hand has been shown to them.

    This Report is based on the examination of Stewart, Watts & Bollong, Public Accountants & Auditors.

    John Lowell

    Committee

    Boston, 21 November, 1922

    The several Reports were accepted and referred to the Committee of Publication.

    On behalf of the Committee appointed to nominate officers for the ensuing year, Mr. Samuel Williston presented the following list of candidates; and, a ballot having been taken, these gentlemen were unanimously elected:

    PRESIDENT

    • fred norris robinson

    VICE-PRESIDENTS

    • arthur prentice rugg george foot moore

    RECORDING SECRETARY

    • henry winchester cunningham

    CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

    • charles edwards park

    TREASURER

    • william crowninshleld endicott

    REGISTRAR

    • alfred johnson

    MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL FOR THREE YEARS

    • francis russell hart

    After the meeting was dissolved, dinner was served. The guests of the Society were the Right Rev. Charles Lewis Slattery, Dr. Octavius Thorndike Howe, and Messrs. Joseph Gardner Bartlett, Frank Brewer Bemis, John Henry Edmonds, Charles Burton Gulick, James Melville Hunnewell, Kenneth Ballard Murdock, Roscoe Pound, John Singer Sargent, Elihu Thomson, Alfred Marston Tozzer, Harry Walter Tyler, and Arthur Gordon Webster. The President presided, and, in beginning his remarks, paid a feeling tribute to the memory of Henry Herbert Edes.