118 FIELD MEETING, AT ROWLEY. 



noted for the manufacture, by the old process, of cotton 

 hemp and flax cloth. Winthrop, in 1643, said that in 

 this respect " Rowley exceeded all other towns." 



The present appearance of the town is not uninterest- 

 ing. It is a rural community, and not a few of its families 

 date back from the beginning of the settlement. As in 

 many of the old New England towns, some of its chil- 

 dren, from an early period to the present time, have been 

 wont to leave the old homestead, to colonize new places, 

 or to seek the centres of trade, commerce and manufac- 

 tures. This migratory propensity of our people has 

 largely conduced to the settling of the extensive terri- 

 tory, constituting nearly, if not quite, the present area 

 of the United States, under one general government, di- 

 vided into states and territories. Many from the distant 

 portions of the union, descendants of the first comers, 

 visit, occasionally, the places where their emigrant ances- 

 tors first settled, and made for themselves homes in this, 

 then unsettled, country. 



To aid in thus perpetuating the memories of our an- 

 cestors and tracing the development of the growth of our 

 country from these fountain heads — especially those lo- 

 cated within the limits of the county of Essex — the 

 germs, as it were, from which has evolved, by constant 

 accretions, the country of to-day, is one of the leading 

 objects of the Essex Institute. 



How much the Institute has done, in this direction, 

 can be seen by visiting its rooms in Plummer Hall, Salem, 

 or in examining its various publications, treating on these 

 and kindred subjects. What progress it will make in the 

 future will largely depend upon the encouragement and 

 support it receives from the citizens of the county, from 

 those who have removed therefrom and made their homes 



