446 ANNUAL REPORT 



The Committee on Obituary presented the following report : 



IN MEMORIAM. 



Egbert Hale. 



The Society, since its last annual meeting, has sustained a great 

 loss in the death of one of its most honored members — that of 

 Eobert Hale, Esq., late secretary of the board of trade of this 

 city. Mr. Hale was born in the little village of Boscawen, IST. H., 

 Oct. 1, 1815, and died at Minneapolis, June 28, 1888. He came 

 to this city in 1871, and resided here constantly up to the time 

 of his death. In relation to his eventful life, a committee ap- 

 pointed by the board of trade from its members, in its report 

 says: 



"A life surpassing in all the excellencies and virtues which 

 adorn the highest type of a broad, a sturdy, and a noble man- 

 hood, a life as pure as the golden sunbeams which warm the earth 

 and as tender and sweet as the fragrant flowers which turn their 

 beautiful faces to the morning sky, has passed suddenly away 

 and brought us here with our hearts in grief and mourning to- 

 day. Your committee do not feel competent to eulogize Robert 

 Hale. He was truly a most remarkable man. His whole life 

 was a record of worthy and honorable action. From his boy- 

 hood to that hour when he so suddenly fell at our feet, no single 

 action of his life ever tarnished the perfect brightness of his per- 

 sonal honor. In every relation of life he seemed, indeed, a per- 

 fect man. No impure thought could find a place in his mind; no 

 mean or selfish purpose could find a corner in his pure heart; and 

 and no unworthy object or cause could command his obedience 

 or support. He loved his fellow men; he loved this our city in 

 which he lived, and died: he loved his associates in this board. 

 He loved and was ever true and faithful to his friends, and he 

 loved and worshiped God. He was a perfect husband and father, 

 and he made his home and family as happy as human love and 

 affection can make a home. To his neighbors he was kind, and 

 to all he was courteous and considerate. To the young he was 

 the giver of kind and useful advice and encouragement; to the 

 busy man of affairs he was a careful and prudent counsellor, and 

 those who walked beside him in the soft sunshine of life's after- 

 noon he lifted up and made joyous by the inspiration of his own 

 unfaltering, loving faith. Wherever he went among men, and 



