August 3.--Pemberton Square was chosen as the site for the new Suffolk
County Court House.
* * * * *
On August 3 was celebrated at Middletown, Conn., the centenary of the
first Episcopal ordination held in this country. "The clergy met their
Bishop at Middletown on Aug. 2, 1785, and after a formal acknowledgment
of their Bishop on the part of the clergy, he held an ordination of
three candidates from Connecticut--Philo Shelton, Ashbel Baldwin and
Henry Vandyck--and one from Maryland, Colin Fergusun." There was a large
attendance of clergymen from various parts of New England.
* * * * *
August 5.--The Washburn Library, erected by the surviving members of the
Washburn family, was dedicated at Livermore, Maine. Among the guests
present were ex-vice President Hannibal Hamlin, Senator Frye, Mr. E.B.
Haskell of the Boston _Herald_, and Hon. E.B. Washburn, of Illinois
who delivered the address. Over a thousand people attended the services.
* * * * *
August 6.--Death of the Hon. John Batchelder, a well known citizen of
Lynn, Mass, at the age of eighty. He was a native of Topsfield, Mass.,
but went to Lynn when a young man. He taught school in Ward 5 for thirty
years previous to 1855, and was elected to the Massachusetts senate that
year. He was also in the same year elected city clerk and collector of
taxes. He was re-elected to the senate in 1856 and 1857. He was the
first treasurer of the Lynn Five Cents Savings Bank. He afterward taught
the Ward 6 Grammar School, and held that position ten years, and then
became a member of the school board. The last office held by him was
that of postmaster, being appointed by President Grant in 1869.
* * * * *
At a meeting of the Battle Monument Association, held at Bennington,
Vt., on the 12th of August, there were present Governor Pingree, who
presided, Senators Evarts and Morrill, Professor Perry of Yale College,
Lieutenant Governor Ormsbee of Brandon, and other gentlemen. The report
of the special committee was read, and a resolution passed accepting the
design of J.P. RINN, of Boston for a Battle Monument. A committee was
then appointed to report the details to the President of the United
States and the governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which
action will entitle the Association to receive the appropriations made
by Congress and the Legislatures of these states for the monument. The
fund now amounts to $80,000.
* * * * *
On August 12th, General HENRY KEMBLE OLIVER died in Salem,
Mass., at the advanced age of eighty-five years. He was born in Beverly,
Mass., Nov. 24, 1800, a son of Rev. Daniel Oliver and Elizabeth Kemble;
was educated in the Boston Latin School, and Harvard College (for two
years) and was graduated from Dartmouth College. After his graduation,
he settled in Salem, and as Principal of the High and Latin Schools, and
also of a private school, he was virtually at the head of the
educational interests of the town for a quarter of a century. In 1848,
he moved to Lawrence, Mass., to become agent of the Atlantic Mills.
While living in Lawrence, he was appointed superintendent of schools,
and in recognition of his services the "Oliver Grammar School" was
founded.
At an early day General Oliver became interested in military affairs as
an officer of the Salem Light Infantry and in 1844 he was made Adjutant
General of the Commonwealth, by Gov. Briggs, and held this office for
four years. During the war he served with great satisfaction as
Treasurer of the Commonwealth, and performed the most arduous duties in
a very faithful and acceptable manner. From 1869 to 1873 he was chief of
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and ever after that became interested in
reducing the hours of labor in factories and in the limitation of
factory work by children. From 1876 to 1880 he was mayor of Salem, and
displayed almost the same vivacity and energy in discharging the duties
of this office, as an octogenarian, that he had shown in his youth. He
was master of the theory and history of music, a good bass singer, a
good organist, and the author of several popular compositions. Of these
"Federal Street" seems likely to become permanent in musical literature.
In his youth he sang in the Park street church in Boston and for many
years he led the choir of the North church in Salem. "Oliver's
Collection of Church Music" is one of the results of his labors in this
direction. In conjunction with Dr. Tuckerman he published the "National
Lyre." He was a member of the old Handel and Hayden Society and the
Salem Glee Club, both famous musical organizations of his early days.
In 1825 General Oliver married Sally, daughter of Captain Samuel Cook,
by whom he had two sons and five daughters, as follows: Colonel S.C.
Oliver, Dr. H.K. Oliver, Jr., Sarah Elizabeth, who married Mr. Bartlett
of Lawrence, and who died about four years ago, Emily Kemble, who is the
wife of Colonel Andrews, U.S.A., Mary Evans Oliver, who has been the
faithful attendant of the general in his declining years, and Ellen
Wendell, who married Augustus Cheever of North Andover.
* * * * *
August 13.--Boxford, Mass. celebrated its bi-centennial. Among the
addresses was one by Sidney Perley, author of the "History of Boxford
from 1635 to 1880," who spoke particularly on the formative period of
the history of Boxford, alluding to the fact that Boxford was a frontier
in 1635 and was then a wilderness and the fighting ground of the Agawam
and Tarantive Indians.
* * * * *
August 19.--Third annual meeting of the American Boynton Association
held in Worcester, Mass. The Secretary said that he had been able to
trace over three hundred families back to William and John Boynton, who
settled in Rowley, Mass., in 1638. They came from Yorkshire, England,
and the family there is traced back through thirty generations, to 1067,
when their estate was confirmed to them by William, the Conqueror. It
was reported that work is being pushed in the preparation of the family
memorial to be published.
* * * * *
August 19.--Centennial of Heath, Franklin County, Mass, incorporated
February 14, 1785. The celebration had been postponed to August for the
sake of convenience. About 2,500 people attended the exercises. The
principal addresses were by John H. Thompson, Esq., of Chicago, and Rev.
C.E. Dickinson of Marietta, Ohio.