THE RETROSPECT OF THE TEAK. 19 



was voted to form a class for the study of our local his- 

 tory, to hold weekly meetings on Tuesday afternoons ; 

 the hour of meeting to be four o'clock ; the time of the 

 session to be limited to one hour ; the place of meeting, 

 the Henry Wheatland library room, the use of which was 

 offered to the class. 



Mrs. Henry M. Brooks was chosen chairman, Miss H. 

 D. Lander, Secretary, and Miss M. E. Arvedson, Refer- 

 ence Librarian. 



At first the members read extracts from books contain- 

 ing accounts of life in the early times. In a few weeks 

 they began to write papers, gathering the facts from the 

 books, but telling the stories in their own words. The in- 

 terest has increased greatly as the study has progressed. 

 Forty-nine papers have been prepared upon a variety of 

 subjects, including the lives of the early planters, of the 

 early governors, of the first ministers, and of the notable 

 women of those early days, who so bravely endured the 

 hardships and privations, and often the persecutions to 

 which they were exposed. Papers have been written also 

 descri})tive of the places prominent in our early history : 

 North and South Fields, Salem Xeck, and Salem Common. 



Accounts have been given of Salem's early com- 

 merce, ship building, the early Xew England fisheries, 

 schools and school-masters, the establishment of Harvard 

 College, custom houses, taverns, slavery, travelling, the 

 early Quakers, and the cruelties and persecutions they 

 suffered at the hands of the Puritans. A paper dealing 

 with Roger AVilliams' life in Salem, and the persecutions 

 inflicted upon him by the magistrates, drew forth a paper 

 from another member of the class, taking the other side, 

 and, as the title sets forth, " Trying to prove that the mag- 

 istrates had some reason in their sentence of banishment 

 of Roger Williams from the Massachusetts Colony, from 

 their point of view." 



