ANNUAL MEETING, NOVEMBER, 1900.

    The Annual Meeting was held at the University Club, No. 270 Beacon Street, Boston, on Wednesday, 21 November, 1900, at six o’clock in the evening, the First Vice-President, William Watson Goodwin, D.C.L., in the chair.

    The Records of the Stated Meeting in April, and of the Special Meeting in May, in memory of the late President, were read and approved.

    The Corresponding Secretary reported that letters had been received from the Reverend Edward Hale and Mr. Henry Lee Higginson accepting Resident Membership.

    The Report of the Council was presented and read by Mr. John Noble.

    REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.

    The year now closing has been prosperous and successful. The financial condition of the Society will be set out in full in the Treasurer’s Report. The available funds are limited and on a modest scale, but, for a young Society, the prospect is encouraging. We wait in hope. The past is secure, the present sound and safe.

    In the death of its President, Edward Wheelwright, the Society has met with a loss in many respects irreparable. His kindly presence, his dignity and grace as a presiding officer, his many historical and literary communications, the felicity of the memoirs which he wrote, his generosity, — so modest and so opportune, — his keen interest in the Society, his absolute devotion to its welfare and service, the wisdom of his ad vice in the Council, and the successful conduct of all its affairs have made memorable his connection with the Society as a member, and his administration as its President. His munificent bequest of $20,000, which alone would embalm his memory with the Society, proves a devotion that did not end with his life. His death came suddenly after the close of our Stated Meetings. A Special Meeting of the Council was at once called, and a Special Memorial Meeting of the Society was held on the twenty-eighth of May. The proceedings at both meetings will hereafter appear in our Transactions.

    The year has brought also the loss of five other of the most valued and eminent of the Resident Members: —

    Edward Griffin Porter, an authority on the local history of Boston, and of all New England; a man of wide and marvellous knowledge, general and detailed, of our early history, — a knowledge instantly available and ever at the service of all asking it: a devoted Member of the Society, always present when on this side of the Atlantic, whose numerous contributions have given interest and value to our Transactions.

    William Crowninshield Endicott, distinguished alike at the bar, on the bench, and in the cabinet, a valued member whose failing health deprived us of his frequent presence.

    Augustus Lowell, fit representative of a family identified for generations with the history of the City and of the Commonwealth, through the judiciary, the institutions of learning, science and philanthropy, and the great textile industries, and with the whole public life of both: himself a man of business and affairs of the highest standing in the community; a public-spirited citizen of the best type of old Boston life, who worthily bore the duties imposed by his inheritance; a man of scholarly tastes and acquirements, and, in private relations, a faithful and whole-souled friend.

    John Elbridge Hudson, who singularly combined the scholar, the man of learning and literary ability, the administrative and executive genius, and the capable and successful business man, and who was, withal, a genial companion, beloved by all with whom he came in touch.

    Charles Carroll Everett, the divine, the teacher, the philosopher, who has left an abiding impress on the whole religions thought and life of the day. Dr. Everett has been most closely connected with the Society since his entrance into our fellowship, — a most interested and efficient member, and, for three years, one of the Council. He was, this year, the Chairman of the Committee on Nominations, and upon him would have devolved the duty of making its report at this meeting.

    Memoirs have been assigned to the following named members: — that of Mr. Porter to Samuel Swett Green, of Judge Endicott to Joseph Hodges Choate; of President Wheelwright to Henry Herbert Edes; of Mr. Hudson to James Bradley Thayer; of Dr. Everett to the Reverend Edward Hale; of Mr. Lowell to Judge Francis Cabot Lowell; and that of George Otis Shattuck, originally assigned to a Member whose own memoir has since been communicated to the Society, to the Reverend Edward Henry Hall.

    The year has brought the first break in our Honorary and Corresponding Rolls.

    John Howland Ricketson, a Corresponding Member, died on the twentieth of July. Graduating in the Harvard Class of 1859, after following for a time his chosen profession, the law, he became the head of a large manufacturing corporation, the affairs of which he successfully conducted for thirty years, and was always looked to as an able representative of the great iron industry of Pennsylvania. Through these years he was closely connected with the interests and many of the important events of the city of his adoption, Pittsburgh. Political honors, often offered, he always declined. He was a devoted son of Harvard, carrying with him the Harvard spirit, and the College is indebted to him for many valuable services. Kind, tender, generous, thoughtful, of winning personality, he made friends everywhere and left an abiding memory with all who knew him.

    Edward John Phelps, the first to die of those whose names are borne on our short and carefully-guarded roll of Honorary Members, has left a reputation, both national and international, as an expounder and teacher of law, as a statesman and as a diplomatist, and, perhaps even better and higher than all, as a public-spirited citizen of the American Republic, — a patriot in the broadest and highest sense, who loved and served his country, privately and publicly, with equal devotion and ability. His gracious presence at more than one of our Annual Dinners, — for the last time a year ago, — will come back to us to-night with longing and tender memories. The touching and felicitous tribute paid by our late honored President to Mr. Phelps at the Stated Meeting after his death, will appear in full in our Transactions.

    During the year, five Resident Members have been enrolled, —

    • James Ford Rhodes,
    • Edward Henry Hall,
    • John Gorham Palfrey,
    • Edward Hale,
    • Henry Lee Higginson;

    and the names of six Corresponding Members, —

    • James Phinney Baxter,
    • Arthur Twining Hadley,
    • John Chandler Bancroft Davis,
    • Moses Coit Tyler,
    • John Shaw Billings,
    • Horace Howard Furness,

    have been added to the Roll.

    Beside the Annual Meeting and Dinner, in November, five Stated Meetings have been held, from December to April, and the Special Meeting in honor of President Wheelwright, in May. The Meeting in January, occurring on the anniversary of Franklin’s birth, gave occasion to some reference to his life and the part he played in American history. At all the meetings the attendance was good for a body, made up like this, of busy men, engrossed by their own imperative duties and occupations and controlled by conflicting engagements. Constant attendance in such case is, of course, impossible. None the less are full meetings desirable, as at once not merely among the evidences, but also among the causes, of success. Such an attendance involves a corresponding obligation, — that all the meetings shall be made more and more interesting and better and better worth attending, by due effort and provision on the part of all. A notable feature of the meetings has been the increased and increasing participation by the members generally in the discussions following the reading of the papers.

    Something more than twenty papers were communicated in the course of the year, all of interest, and some of especial importance and value. They covered a variety of subjects. Time and space do not allow of details. Diaries and original correspondence were brought out, throwing light on the domestic, social and political conditions of the times; there were various historical papers, some on the obscurer and less familiar events of Colonial and Provincial days; there were side-lights on well-known characters in our history; some venerable historical errors were detected and corrected; some well-known lists, supposed to be full and authentic, were shown to be defective and inaccurate; the origin and transmutations of geographical names were given, interesting in themselves, and of value in many directions; copies of little known State Papers, of records — town, state and court — were exhibited, Besides many original documents; and other contributions of many kinds were made during the year. Beside the communications already mentioned, there have been memoirs of deceased members presented, the last among them being that of Dr. Joseph Henry Allen by Dr. Charles Carroll Everett.

    During the year a volume of Transactions filling nearly six hundred pages, thoroughly indexed and well illustrated, has been issued and distributed to the members, as well as a serial of more than two hundred pages, — a part of the current volume. The work of printing is being pushed forward as rapidly as is consistent with accuracy, proper editing, good workmanship, and the necessity of keeping our expenditures within our slender income.

    The life and strength of any Society like this must lie largely in its Publications, hence the need is apparent of a permanent and generous endowment set apart as a Publication Fund. The income of a fund of $50,000, were such possible, — and may not such an amount be hoped for in due time? — could be well and profitably employed, and is none too large to meet the demands and effect the purposes and plans of the Society even at the present time.

    A most pressing need of the Society is a permanent, convenient and comfortable abiding place. For several years it enjoyed and was dependent upon the courteous hospitality of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The past year it has met a like courtesy and kindness at the hands of the American Unitarian Association, and has held its meetings in its Building, No. 25 Beacon Street. For this most opportune and generous hospitality the Society is greatly indebted. The Council has conveyed to the Association an expression of its grateful appreciation of this hospitality. This Society is as yet young, and must, of necessity, temper its hopes and expectations with the modesty becoming its youth, and try to console itself with the reflection that “all things come round to him who will but wait.” Meanwhile, the need is none the less apparent. A fixed and commodious home would at once insure the gift of books, manuscripts and collections, beside relics, portaits, pictures, photographs, and valuable articles of all kinds, not a few of which have been, from time to time, offered or promised in the future, when suitable and safe accommodations shall have been provided.

    Mention has been made in previous Reports of movements of municipal and other corporations and bodies looking to the publication of important ancient records. Beside the work of the City of Cambridge, thus mentioned, the First Parish in Cambridge has lately appointed a committee which is now considering the question of printing its Church Registers, — a purpose the carrying out of which is earnestly to be hoped for.

    The Council has often referred in its Reports to the fields opening to this and kindred organizations, and has suggested directions and methods of historical work, and plans and projects that seemed to it worthy of consideration. These suggestions need not be repeated; it is enough to renew them.

    And now, at the opening of another year, the Council feels that the Society has fully established its right to be, that its future is assured, and that it may start upon the coming year with well-grounded confidence and sanguine hope.

    The Reports of the Treasurer and of the Committee to examine the Treasurer’s Accounts were then submitted, as follows: —

    REPORT OF THE TREASURER.

    The By-Laws of the Society require of the Treasurer, at the Annual Meeting, a statement of the financial operations during the preceding year and of the amount, character, and condition of the investments. In obedience to this requirement, I have the honor to submit the following Report.

    CASH ACCOUNT.

    receipts.

    Balance, 10 November, 1899

     

    280.92

    Admission Fees

    $50.00

     

    Annual Assessments

    780.00

     

    Commutation of the Annual Assessment from one Member

    100.00

     

    Interest

    726.87

     

    Sales of the Society’s Publications

    47.60

     

    Contributions from two Members

    213.44

     

    Gift to the Publication Fund from Edward Wheelwright

    100.00

     

    Withdrawn from Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    1,125.00

    3,142.91

       

    $3,423.83

    expenditures.

    University Press: printing

    $1,390.28

     

    21 reams paper

    144.19

     

    A. W. Elson and Company, photogravures and plate printing

    126.74

     

    J. A. Wilcox, plate printing

    10.30

     

    Sufflok Engraving Company

    1.25

     

    Hill, Smith and Company, stationery

    12.10

     

    Houghton and Clark, wreath

    8.00

     

    Boston Pracel Delivery Company

    24.88

     

    William H. Hart, auditing

    5.00

     

    Clerical service

    73.15

     

    Miscellaneous incidentals

    405.76

     

    Deposited in Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    1,198.23

     

    Interest in Adjustment

    17.50

     
       

    $3,417.38

    Balance on Deposit in the Third National Bank of Boston, 17 November, 1900

     

    6.45

       

    $3,423.38

    The Funds of the Society are invested as follows: —

    $13,500.00 in First Mortgages, payable in gold coin, on improved property in Boston and Cambridge.

    520.00 deposited in the Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank.

    TRIAL BALANCE.

    debits.

    Cash

     

    $6.45

    Mortgages

    $13,500.00

     

    Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    520

    14,020.00

       

    $14,026.45

    credits.

    Income

     

    $6.45

    Publication Fund

    $700.00

     

    General Fund

    3,320.00

     

    Gould Memorial Fund

    10,000.00

    14,020.00

       

    $14,026.45

    Henry H. Edes,

    Boston, 17 November, 1900.

    Treasurer.

    REPORT OF THE AUDITING COMMITTEE.

    The undersigned, a Committee appointed to examine the accounts of the Treasurer of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts for the year ending 17 November, 1900, have attended to that duty, and report that they find them correctly kept and properly vouched; and that proper evidence of the investments and of the balance of cash on band has been shown to us.

    Andrew C. Wheelwright,

    Francis H. Lincoln,

    Committee.

    Boston, 19 November, 1900.

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

    Mr. Albert Matthews, on behalf of the Committee to nominate candidates for Officers for the ensuing year, made the following Report: —

    president.

    • GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE.

    vice-presidents.

    • WILLIAM WATSON GOODWIN.
    • JAMES BRADLEY THAYER.

    recording secretary.

    • HENRY WINCHESTER CUNNINGHAM.

    corresponding secretary.

    • JOHN NOBLE.

    treasurer.

    • HENRY HERBERT EDES.

    registrar.

    • FREDERICK LEWIS GAY.

    member of the council for three years.

    • EDWARD HALE.

    The Report was accepted; and, a ballot being taken, these gentlemen were unanimously elected.

    Mr. Samuel Swett Green communicated a Memoir of Edward Griffin Porter, which he had been requested to prepare for publication in the Transactions.

    After the dissolution of the meeting, dinner was served to the members and their guests, — General Joseph Wheeler and Mr. George Parker Winship, a Corresponding Member of the Society. Vice-President Goodwin presided and the Reverend Edward Hale invoked the Divine blessing.

    After dinner, the members rose and, in silence, drank to the memory of Edward Wheelwright. Speeches were made by Professor Goodwin, General Wheeler, Mr. Winship and the President-elect, Professor Kittredge.

    Mr. Henry H. Edes addressed the Chair as follows: —

    Mr. Chairman, — There is one familiar face which we all miss to-night, — that of our oldest member, whose attendance at our meetings has been as constant as his devotion to every interest of the Society. In a note received from him this morning, he writes: —

    It is with real reluctance and regret that I find myself unable to join you. My illness, last summer, took away very much of my elasticity of movement, besides twenty or more pounds of my avoirdupois, and I am but slowly, though, I believe, surely, getting back to my normal condition. A man well on in the eighties must husband his resources, and I mean to reserve myself for the meetings of the coming year, which I hope to attend regularly.

    The recollection of the past dinners is very pleasant, and there are many hands I should be glad to shake this year, as Mr. Goodell’s, Lindsay Swift’s, and many others — so I shall remember you all on the twenty-first.

    I am sure, Sir, that we shall all be glad to rise and drink to the health of our devoted and chivalrous old friend. I give you the health of Mr. Henry Williams, of the Harvard Class of 1837.

    MEMOIR

    of the

    REV. EDWARD GRIFFIN PORTER,

    by

    samuel swett green.

    Edward Griffin Porter was born in Boston, 24 January, 1837. He was the son of Royal Loomis Porter, editor and proprietor of the Boston Traveller, a newspaper which he started in 1825. Mr. Royal Porter died in Charleston, South Carolina, where he had gone for the benefit of his health, in 1844. Edward Porter’s mother was Sarah Ann Pratt, who was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1812, and is still living.

    In 1623, John Porter came from the West of England to Plymouth, in the Colony of that name. Branches of the family afterwards settled in Farmington and Hartford, Connecticut, and in Danvers and Hadley, Massachusetts. Edward Porter was descended, in the sixth generation, from the first settler in East Hartford, Connecticut. A son of the first settler there was James Porter, born in 1720. His son, James, was born in 1745. James’s son, Daniel, was born in East Hartford in 1776, but after the war moved to Williamstown, Massachusetts. He had a son, Royal Loomis, born in Vermont in 1801, who was the father of Edward Griffin Porter.

    Mr. Royal Porter was an only son. He graduated at Williams College in 1823 and taught school a year or two in New York State before removing to Boston. He is said to have edited the Traveller with signal ability and success, until he died. He was buried near his father in the old cemetery at Williamstown.

    Edward Porter lived in Boston until he was seven years old; his father then moved to Canton, Massachusetts, but, dying within a year, the family returned to Boston. Mrs. Porter, left a widow with three children, — Frank, Edward, and William, — soon married Nathan Carruth, a Boston merchant. The family lived in Hancock Street for about two years and then moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts, where Mr. Carruth had built a large house in the gothic style, on an elevated spot, regarded as one of the most eligible in the vicinity of Boston. Edward Porter always spoke warmly of the never-failing kindness of his step-father.

    After attending several private and public schools, Porter, in 1851, entered Phillips Academy, Andover, which was then under the charge of the celebrated educator, Samuel Harvey Taylor. He remained in the Academy during the usual course of preparation for college. He graduated in the summer of 1854, after pronouncing an oration on the Genius of Labor, and left school with high hopes and a stout heart to enter upon college life.

    In January, 1853, Porter united, by public profession of faith, with the Second Church in Dorchester, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. James H. Means.

    It had always been Porter’s wish and that of his friends that he should go to college. In 1854, he was admitted to Williams College, after examination. It was by his own choice rather than that of his friends, who preferred he should go to Harvard College, that he went to Williams. He soon became disappointed with the educational advantages offered there and with his surroundings, and in the autumn of 1855, too late to have his name appear in the first edition of the Catalogue for that year, he transferred his connection to Harvard College. While at Williams College he joined the Alpha Delta Phi Society. In Cambridge he had only a few intimate friends, but those who knew him well were warmly attached to him and respected him highly. He did not attain to a high rank in his Class, — very likely did not seek it, — but was generally regarded as industrious, thoroughly in earnest, a man of considerable attainments and good scholarship.

    The Class of 1858 in Harvard College does not stand out conspicuous by reason of a huge number of its members having become famous. Still, it is pleasant to remark that nearly every member has done well while he lived, and many members have become eminent. Samuel Pasco was for several years a United States Senator from Florida, and Frederic George Bromberg, William Elliot, and the late William Fitzhugh Lee have represented in Congress districts in Alabama, South Carolina, and Virginia, respectively. Locally, the names of Winslow Warren and Henry Pickering Walcott will be recognized as belonging to men who have won distinction in public life in Massachusetts. The latter has also been, for several years, a Fellow of Harvard College. Among the teachers are Benjamin Graves Brown, Professor of Mathematics in Tufts College, the lately deceased Bradbury Longfellow Cilley, and George Albert Wentworth, for many years instructors in the Phillips Exeter Academy, the veteran George Washington Copp Noble of Boston, Eugene Frederick Bliss of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Joseph Alden Shaw of the Highland Military Academy, Worcester, Massachusetts. Of the physicians, the names are well known of John Homans, Robert Thaxter Edes, John Gray Park, and George Ebenezer Francis. The Reverend Henry Wilder Foote, Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston, was a member of the Class; and among those members who became lawyers are Judge Alfred Stedman Hartwell of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, Judge William Henry Fox of Taunton, Massachusetts, and James Clarke Davis, of Boston. Of the representatives of the Class in business may be mentioned John Lowell Gardner, recently deceased, Hersey Bradford Goodwin, and the two Tobeys, — Gerard Curtis and Horace Pratt. Well-known Boston families were represented by Fisher Ames, Josiah Bradlee, Louis Cabot, Benjamin William Crowninshield, Ozias Goodwin, Hollis Hunnewell, and Edward Bromfield Mason. George Edward Pond, who has lately died, was always an editor or editorial writer, and is particularly remembered by his connection with the Army and Navy Journal during the Civil War. The writer of this Memoir has helped to give completeness to the list of occupations in the Class by nearly thirty years’ service as a librarian.

    Several members of the Class of 1858 have shown a decided interest in American history, and Porter was prominent among them. The most eminent of these is Henry Adams, known to his classmates by the name of Henry Brooks Adams, by which name he was designated in the catalogue throughout his college course. George Dexter, Foote, John Charles Phillips (Porter’s room-mate in the Senior year), Porter, Robert Noxon Toppan, Walcott, and Warren have been or are Resident Members of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Adams, Bliss, Dexter, Foote, Francis, Green, Porter, and Toppan are the living and deceased members of the Class who have represented it in the American Antiquarian Society. Many members of the Class have belonged to other historical societies and served as officers in them, to say nothing of those who are past or present members of this Society.43

    The Class lost some of its most promising members by early death, among them William Gibbons of New York City. He was with the Class for a few months as a Sophomore, but died in Cambridge in that year. The most serious losses, however, came through the Civil War. The time of the graduation of the Class was such that many members served as soldiers. Five lost their lives, and among them were such men of promise as James Jackson Lowell, Henry Lyman Patten, and Thomas Jefferson Spurr. The Class had representatives in both armies. A story is told of a meeting, during the war, of William Fitzhugh Lee, a son of General Robert E. Lee, and Nicholas Longworth Anderson. They were Generals in the Confederate and Union armies, respectively, and found themselves, one night, on opposite sides of a river. Anderson, the story runs, sent a pleasant message to his old classmate Lee, but the latter’s feelings were too strong to allow him to reciprocate the courtesy. He sent back word that he could have no correspondence with a man of such objectionable principles as those of Anderson. The latter afterwards made his home in Washington. Lee’s place was near that city after the war, and, as before stated, he was in Congress. The two old friends must have often laughed heartily over the above-mentioned scene when they renewed, as they did, their hearty friendship in the Capital of the country.

    Porter wrote in his college class-book, 18 May, 1858, that he was to sail for Europe the next day. “My present plans,” he continues, “are to travel six months in Europe with my mother, study during the following winter at Heidelberg, and return in 1859 to enter upon the study of theology.” He did not return, however, until July, 1861. While abroad he studied at Berlin and Heidelberg and paid his first visit to the East, spending much time in travelling in Egypt and Syria.

    In 1861, Porter took the degree of Master of Arts. In September of the same year, he entered the Andover Theological Seminary, and graduated from it in August, 1864. The writer of this Memoir remembers spending a pleasant day with him at Andover while he was in the Seminary. He took me on a delightful walk in the woods, allowed me to accompany him to a lecture by the celebrated Dr. Edwards Amasa Park, and in the evening escorted me to a charming reception at Abbot Academy. He had a rare faculty of finding out the beautiful scenery and interesting historic spots in every town where he stayed, became acquainted with the men best worth knowing, and, when long enough in a place, was admitted freely to its best social circles. He much enjoyed sharing his knowledge and privileges with a friend.

    Mr. Porter was licensed to preach by the Norfolk Association, at Braintree, Massachusetts, 26 January, 1864. In the spring of the same year, while still connected with the Seminary, he went west in the service of the United States Sanitary Commission. There he contracted a fever which seriously impaired his health. After graduating at Andover, he remained at home in Dorchester, taking charge of a church during the absence of its pastor. In the following year he preached occasionally in various places, but did not feel strong enough to accept any proposals for settlement. By the advice of his physician and friends he sailed again for Europe, 31 May, 1866. After some time spent in England, he went to Switzerland and Italy. There he studied with great interest the Waldensian movement to give Protestant churches and schools to all the principal towns, and was almost persuaded to accept the charge of the new Italian church at Venice. He went next to Malta, and thence to the East, where he spent the spring of 1867. The work of the American Mission at Beirut and on the slopes of Mount Lebanon engaged much of his attention. Afterwards, in Greece, he aided in the distribution of some of the American supplies among the Cretan refugees. Returning through Austria and Germany, he reached Paris in time to see the close of the great Exhibition, and arrived in this country again in January, 1868. He spent a short time in arranging the materials collected in his journey, but kept in mind the work for which he had been educated.

    On the first of October, 1868, Mr. Porter was ordained minister of the Hancock Congregational Church, a newly-formed Trinitarian Society in Lexington, Massachusetts. He remained in that position for twenty-three years, and was very successful in his ministry. Although not regarded as a remarkable preacher, he was an admirable pastor and a public-spirited citizen.

    As we know, Mr. Porter was not unmindful of the charm of the society of men of high social position or of those who had become eminent professionally or in politics; yet he had a happy faculty, also, of becoming interested in persons in all conditions of life and of making everybody with whom he came in contact his friend. He was universally respected and loved by his people and townsmen, and he was an especial favorite with children.

    While in Lexington, Mr. Porter took an active interest in the affairs of the town. He became chairman of the School Committee and a trustee of the Public Library. He also served as chairman of a committee on the order of exercises at the celebration, in 1875, of the one hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Lexington. When he resigned his charge as pastor, in 1891, his resignation was reluctantly accepted and be was made Pastor Emeritus of the church. He always retained his citizenship in Lexington.

    In 1887–88 he made another journey to the East, on that occasion visiting the missionary stations of the American Board in Turkey, India, China, and Japan. He had a strong and active interest in foreign missions, and will be very much missed in missionary circles. He also had a lively interest in the East, evidenced, and probably partially caused, by the several visits which he made to that portion of the world. He seemed to me never happier or more at home than when, standing on a platform, with a map behind him, he explained clearly and thoroughly the political situation and the religious differences in such little known states as Wallachia, Servia, and Moldavia, or expounded the causes and merits of dissensions between Mussulmans and Armenians.

    Mr. Porter’s services were much in demand to serve on committees and they were cheerfully and efficiently rendered. He held a large number of offices. Thus, he was a member of the Overseers’ Committee to visit the Academical Department of Harvard College, and of the Boards of Visitors of Wellesley College and Bradford Academy. He was a Trustee of Abbot Academy, Andover, and of Lawrence Academy, Groton, Massachusetts. We find him helping the Trustees of the American College at Aintab in Asia Minor at the time of its establishment, and afterwards be became President of its Board of Trustees.

    Porter represented Massachusetts in the Historical Department of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876, and was a delegate of the American Antiquarian Society at the meeting of the Royal Society of Canada held in Halifax in the spring of 1897, the chief object of which was to erect a monument to John Cabot. His interest in American history was very great, and the study and presentation of portions of it occupied a considerable part of his activities and gave a coloring to most of his literary productions. He was an accomplished guide in pointing out places of historical interest in Lexington, Boston and its neighborhood, Plymouth, and other localities. His services in this capacity were regarded as very valuable, and were freely given when asked for. He always had investigations in band. The writer of this paper remembers that for two or three years before his death Porter was actively engaged in looking up the path which in Colonial times led from Boston, through Worcester and other towns, to Springfield.

    In April, 1876, Mr. Porter was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society, and in 1880 a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He was also a member of the American Historical Association and of other historical organizations. In January, 1899, he was chosen President of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and in the following summer be was elected to fellowship in the Harvard chapter of the Fraternity of Phi Beta Kappa.

    In 1887, Mr. Porter published an interesting book entitled Rambles in Old Boston, New England. It is a work which is much in demand, and has for some time been out of print. He also contributed to the third volume of the Memorial History of Boston, edited by Justin Winsor, the chapter on The Beginning of the Revolution (1760–1775). In 1875, he published an Historical Sketch of the Battle of Lexington, and edited the volume containing the Proceedings of the Celebration Commemorative of the one hundredth anniversary of that battle. Among his occasional papers which have been printed are: Sermon on the death of the Reverend William Hooper Adams (H. C. 1860); Memoir of John Charles Phillips, prepared for the Massachusetts Historical Society; an Original Document of the House of Washington (thirteenth century); an Address on the Centennial of Washington’s visit to Lexington; an Address on Samuel Adams; Four Drawings of Lexington and Concord in 1775; President Garfield’s Ancestry; The Ship Columbia and the Discovery of Oregon; The Cabot Celebrations of 1897; Sketches of the English towns of Dorchester, Ipswich, Billericay, and Bedford; and The Aborigines of Australia.

    Mr. Porter died 5 February, 1900, at the home of his mother, Ashmont, Dorchester. Two days after, on Wednesday, 7 February, he was buried from the same place. A large assembly came together to do honor to his memory. Among those present were the venerable Dr. Cyrus Hamlin and other clergymen, a numerous delegation from his Society in Lexington, college classmates, and associates in historical and other societies.

    Porter died in harness. Only a few days before his death, a corrected proof of Remarks made by him at the meeting of the American Antiquarian Society held in October, 1899, was received by its Publishing Committee. He had agreed to make Remarks at the meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society which occurred a few days after his death, and had made other engagements to write or to speak. From boyhood Mr. Porter had been a student. His life passed smoothly. He was an industrious and useful man; and, busy, loved, and respected as he was, his death will be widely felt.

    Mr. Porter was elected a Resident Member of this Society on the fifteenth of March, 1893. On the twentieth of December, following, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Publication, — a position he continued to hold until his death, and in which he rendered valuable service.