THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 23 



Hathorne, the romancer's father, in command of her on a 

 voyage to Surinam, died in that port. Captain Phippen 

 came home in command, and brought from Frenchman's 

 Bay, on her next voyage, the exceptional cargo of selected 

 lumber used in building and finishing the Woodbridge 

 mansion at the corner of March and Bridge streets. In our 

 second war with England Captain Phippen did service in 

 the building of Fort Lee, and at its close, in 1815, took 

 the news of peace to Calcutta in the Salem ship " Favor- 

 ite." A sketch of him from the pen of Hon. Charles W. 

 Upham appeared on the occasion of his death at the 

 age of ninety in 1868. From such a father George Dean 

 Phippen derived many of his most endearing qualities. 



Mr. Phippen, after enjoying the excellent opportunities 

 afforded by the Salem teaching of that day, took his place, 

 on leaving school, first in the counting room of John Fiske 

 Allen, and then, in 1838, at the age of twenty-three, con- 

 nected himself as bookkeeper with the Salem Bank, then 

 occupying rooms in Pickman Place. Twenty years later 

 he became its cashier and remained in that position until 

 his death, thus completing a service in a single monetary 

 institution of fifty-seven years. Four years before en- 

 tering on his life-work at the Bank, and while yet in his 

 teens, he had taken part in an incipient movement to 

 establish a society for the study of natural history in this 

 county. The effort bore fruit in such an organization, 

 formed at Topsfield in April, 1834, and Mr. Phippen was 

 an original meml)er of it. In 1843 he became a member 

 of the Essex Historical Society, so that when these bodies 

 were united in 1848 to form the present county organiza- 

 tion, Mr. Phippen, belonging to both, was doubly a charter 

 member of the Essex Institute. He was chosen and served 

 for years as its first librarian ; later, he was for twelve 

 years its treasurer, and for more than twice that period 



