276 Massachusetts Horticultural Societv. 



MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

 REMINISCENCES. — No. III. 



The most important object accomplished through the society's influ- 

 ence, in its third year, was the estabHshment of the Mount Auburn 

 Cemetery. General Dearborn had frequently urged the importance of 

 an Experimental Garden; and Dr. Bigelow, Judge Story, and a few 

 individuals outside of the society, were anxious to have a Rural Cem- 

 etery also laid out and embellished near the city. Nothing of the 

 kind then existed in this country, of any note ; Pere la Chaise, near 

 Paris, was the only one that met the views of the few who took any 

 interest in the matter. As no progress was made by them. General 

 Dearborn suggested that the society take hold of the enterprise, and 

 combine with it an Experimental Garden, with green-houses, stoves, 

 orangeries, hot-beds, etc., the fee of the land to be held in trust by the 

 society ; and, as our funds were too small to accomplish the object, it 

 was proposed that a subscription for lots in the proposed Cemetery be 

 opened at sixt}^ dollars each ; and if one hundred were subscribed for, 

 there could be no doubt of its success. " Sweet Auburn," as it was 

 then called, was the only place thought of. It was an undulating tract, 

 with bold eminences and beautiful dells, and contained seventy-two 

 acres (since enlarged), of which it was proposed to set apart thirty-two 

 on the north-eastern and south-eastern borders, for an Experimental 

 Garden, and forty for a cemetery. A " Garden and Cemetery Commit- 

 tee" was chosen, consisting of General Dearborn, Judge Story, Dr. 

 Bigelow, Edward Everett, George W. Brimmer, George Bond, Charles 

 Wells, B. A. Gould, and George W. Pratt, and without extraordinary 

 effort, after the society took the matter in hand, one hundred lots were 

 engaged. That excellent, generous, and public-spirited individual, 

 Joseph P. Bradlee (of whom it was said that he always had his hat 

 full of subscription papers), was particularly active in procuring sub- 

 scribers. As some inducement to take lots, it was voted that every 

 purchaser of one, upon paying for the same, should be considered a 

 life-member of the Horticultural Society, without being subject to as- 



