FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE. 9 



tical agriculturalist, but engaged in a subordinate way in 

 the form of " ventures " in commerce. 



THOMAS RUSSELL, the first president of the society, was 

 one of the foremost, busiest and most prosperous citizens 

 of Boston. He was born in 1740 ; died in 1796 ; repre- 

 sented Boston in the General Court, and the constitutional 

 convention of 1788 ; was member of the governor's coun- 

 cil during the next three years. He was the first president 

 not only of this society but of the Massachusetts Bank, 

 when it was organized in 17&4 ; of the United States branch 

 Bank at its organization, in 1792, and of the Charles river 

 bridge corporation in 1785. He lived on one of the finest 

 estates in Boston, fronting on Summer street, with the 

 mansion standing at the present northerly part of Otis 

 street, near Wiuthrop square. He had a farm of 53 acres, 

 part of which was in Charlestown and part in Cambridge, 

 and at one time he owned the Craigie estate in Cambridge, 

 now familiarly known as the home of Longfellow. When 

 in 1784 (the war being ended) the Continental congress 

 decided to sell on the stocks the new 74 gun frigate, the 

 first ever built in Boston, he was appointed as the agent to 

 conduct the sale. When the frigate Constitution was 

 launched in 1797, though he was no longer living, it was 

 deemed worth the while to make record that the bottle of 

 Madeira wine, with which the ship was christened, came 

 from the cellar of Thomas Russell. 



JOSEPH BARRELL (1739-1804) was a leading merchant. 

 He had a store on the town dock near Faneuil Hall, and 

 sold West India and other foreign goods. He was first on 

 the list of direoctrs of the United States Bank, and the pi- 

 oneer in opening the Northwest coast trade. His ships, 

 the Washington and the Columbia, were the first to round 

 Cape Horn in that enterprise, and the latter was the first 

 vessel that ever crossed the bar of the Columbia river in 

 Oregon, whence the river gets its name. He, also, had a 

 fine estate on Summer street, which he improved by filling 

 up the bog in the rear, which had existed from the begin- 



