188 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



pupils and iucoi-porated as "The New England Christian 

 Academy."^ Hon. David Pingree owned Cherry Hill 

 next, and after him Capt. John Hammond and then Capt. 

 Thomas Holmes who, in 1846, conveyed it to Mr. Waters.^ 

 The new proprietor removed every building, standing on 

 the property, save a single tool-shop, replacing them with 

 ample barns, out-buildings and offices and a modern house 

 and converting the tool-shop, placed in a new location, into 

 a dwelling house for farm-hands. Some of these build- 

 ings were the growth of recent years and of the manual 

 labor experiment, but some of them were of an interesting 

 antiquity. The house itself was standing in 1758, for in 

 demolishing it, in June, 1852, Mr. Waters found a slab of 

 board, some four feet long and nineteen inches wide, sup- 

 posed to have served as the sill or lintel of a dormer win- 

 dow, and still preserved in the family of Deacon Saml. P. 

 Fowler, on which were roughly carved the characters 

 ''RXHX 1758." Rufus was the last of the Herricks to 

 occupy it, and 1758 was the year in which he sold the es- 

 tate out of the Herrick family — perhaps a bit of sentiment, 



> Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., Vol. vi, p. 84. 



^Transfers of this property since it left the Herrick family will be found re- 

 corded in the following deeds, for citations of which the Essex Institute is 

 largely indebted to the courtesy of Hon. John 1. Baker of Beverly and of Daniel 

 N. Crowley, Esq., of Danvcrs. See Essex Deeds, Southern District. 



