278 Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



Nothing further was done for several months. After all, no one ex- 

 hibited any great personal interest in the matter, except General Dear- 

 born. He took hold of it in the spring with as much zeal and effi- 

 ciency as he had previously shown in raising the society at once to 

 a high standing. As the funds at his command were limited, he hired 

 only a few laborers, and superintended and worked with them himself. 

 I remember seeing him, hoe in hand, day after day, at the head of his 

 laborers, levelling and grading the walks (taking his dinner with him, 

 which he would step into the Wyeth House, across the I'oad, to eat"). 

 It is not too much to say that the ultimate grand success of this beautiful 

 Cemetery, the first of the kind in this country, and of which Bostonians 

 are so justly proud, is due more to the far-seeing, persistent, and per- 

 sonal labors of General Dearborn than to any other person whatever. 



Here let me say a word on the preeminent services of another indi- 

 vidual — Colonel Marshall P. Wilder — in building up the society, of 

 which the Mount Auburn Cemetery is an offshoot. General Dearborn 

 spent much of his time, and labored with his pen, to give it a I'especta- 

 ble start, and served as its president for three or four } ears. While 

 living at the West, I never lost my interest in it, and was a constant 

 observer of its progress. After General Dearborn left the presidency, 

 it seemed to have some internal difficulties, as I observed frequent, and 

 sometimes wholesale, resignations of its officers. But in 1S40 Colonel 

 Wilder was elected president, which office he filled most admirably for 

 eight or ten years. Before he was chosen, he had consummated, after 

 long and difficult negotiations, in connection with the Hon. Elijah Vose 

 and Judge Story, an important arrangement with the owners of lots in 

 the Cemetery, whereby an annual and perpetual income of several 

 thousand dollars was secured to the society. This afforded means and 

 led to the erection of the first Horticultural Hall on School Street, in 

 1845, as well as the present magnificent structure in 1865, and ma)' 

 well be considered one of the most important and beneficial acts of his 

 life. Under his presidency were held those magnificent triennial festi- 

 vals in Faneuil Hall, in 1845 and 1848, that threw into the shade every 

 exhibition of the kind that had preceded or has followed them. The 

 public confidence in the usefulness and stability of the society, inspired 



