FIRST PUBLIC MEETING. 59 



just filled the streets to the depth of five or six feet in 

 the city, and much deeper in the country towns. To 

 give character to this preliminary meeting it was deemed 

 quite an object to have the Hon. John Lowell, who then 

 stood at the head of the horticulturists of Massachusetts, 

 preside. His health being feeble, he had felt but little 

 hope that he should be able to be present. One of his 

 neighbors on Colonnade Eow, Cheever Newhall, how- 

 ever, called on him that morning, with his sleigh and 

 extra blankets, and induced him to wrap up and come 

 down, to the great gratification of the company. 1 



A few appropriate remarks on the object of the 

 meeting were made by Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, when 

 he proposed its organization, which was effected by 

 choosing Mr. Lowell moderator, and Zebedee Cook, 

 jun., secretary. It was then voted that Messrs. Henry 

 A. S. Dearborn, Zebedee Cook, jun., and Samuel 

 Downer, be a committee to prepare a constitution and 

 by-laws for the government of the society, and to 

 report the same at a future meeting, to be held at the 

 time and place the committee might designate. It was 

 also voted that Messrs. John B. Russell, Enoch Bartlett, 

 Zebedee Cook, jun., Samuel Downer, and Cheever New- 

 hall be a committee to obtain subscribers to the society, 

 after which the meeting was adjourned. Besides Mr. 

 Lowell, who presided at this meeting, Mr. Cook the 

 secretary, Gen. Dearborn who opened the meeting, and 

 Mr. Russell who lives to tell us of the occasion, it 

 may safely be concluded that Messrs. Downer, Bart- 

 lett, and Newhall, who were appointed on commit- 

 tees, were present. Robert Manning and John JM. 

 Ives came from Salem, as is stated by Mr. Ives, and 



1 Reminiscences of the Mass. Hort. Soc. by John B. Russell in Tilton's 

 Journal of Horticulture, Vol. Til. p. 88. 



