91 



from Essex County, and stated some excellent reasons why a visit to 

 Wakefield, although beyond the limits of that County, was peculiarly 

 appropriate ; one, its contiguity, l^ordering on said County and adjoin- 

 ing two of her towns, with many of whose inhabitants we have daily 

 extensive and intimate business and social relations ; another, it was 

 once a part of Essex County, and the Indian deed of its territory 

 stands recorded in the Essex Registrj\ 



He then mentioned several historical incidents respecting the past 

 and the present of Wakefield, of which the following may be specified. 

 The first settlement was made around these ponds, by the removal of 

 several persons from Lj-nn, about the j^ear 1639, and was called Lynn 

 Village, imtil its incorporation in 1G44, when it was named Reading, 

 and annexed to the County of Middlesex ; as the settlements extended 

 to other parts of the township and were organized into parishes or 

 precincts, this place was callefl the First Parish of Reading, and was 

 thus designated until 1812, when it was incorporated into a separate 

 town under the name of "South Reading;" this name was changed 

 in 1868, to "Wakefield," in honor of one of its most munificent citi- 

 zens. Not only were the earliest settlers all from Lynn, but many 

 subsequent Avere either from Lynn or from other towns in the County 

 of Essex. 



Peter Palfrey an early settler and distinguished citizen of Salem, 

 removed hither before 1652, probably on account of a daughter having 

 married Benjamin Smith of this town, who lived near the present 

 station of the Salem Branch Railroad, and near the pond, that, from 

 his family, was called " Smith's Pond." Smith and his wife (whose 

 name was Jehoaden) were probablj^ cultivators of fruit, for we find 

 that two excellent varieties of apple long fiimous in this vicinity, and 

 still among the best, were named, one for him, " The Ben," sometimes 

 known lately as the " Eustis apple," from our venerable pomologist 

 who has introduced them to fame, and the other for her, "The Jehoa- 

 den." One of the early blacksmiths, Robert Ken, came from Salem 

 and built his shop upon the common, near a small jjoud that was long 

 called "Ken's Pond," which is now filled up. Rev. Richard Bonn was 

 a native of Newbury, and the ancestor of the Saltonstalls. The chair- 

 man of our Committee of Reception this day, Edward Mansfield, is 

 a native of the County of Essex. This list might be greatly ex- 

 tended, 'if time would permit. We may mention in this connection 

 that our town has made some returns for these eai-lj' accessions, by 

 sending back to Essex, from our successive generations, many valu- 

 able citizens, thus: — Rev. Elias Smith, the minister of Middleton, 

 who was settled there in 1759, and was the ancestor of the Peabodys 

 of Salem ; William Poole of Danvers, the leather dresser, and ances- 

 tor of the respectable Poole family in Danvers and Peabody; Rev. 



