70 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Hale. Other gentlemen invited to attend the meeting 

 expressed their concurrence in its design, but were not 

 present. A plan of a cemetery such as Mount Auburn 

 now is was submitted by Dr. Bigelow to the persons 

 assembled, and met with their approval. " A committee, 

 consisting of Messrs. Bond and Tappan, was appointed 

 to look out for a tract of ground suitable for the desired 

 purpose, after which the meeting was dissolved. This 

 committee fixed their attention on an estate in Brook- 

 line, which afterwards proved to be unattainable ; and 

 here the subject rested, without definitive action, for 

 several years." 



The preceding account, given by Dr. Bigelow in his 

 History of Mount Auburn, of the first attempt to 

 establish a rural cemetery in this country, agrees with 

 the statements of other writers on the subject. In an 

 Account of the Proceedings in relation to the Experimen- 

 tal Garden and the Cemetery of Mount Auburn, writ- 

 ten, it is believed, by Gen. Dearborn in 1832, are found 

 these words: 1 " A rural cemetery had claimed the atten- 

 tion of several distinguished gentlemen some ten years 

 since ; but no definite measures were taken for accom- 

 plishing an object of such deep interest and general 

 solicitude among all classes of society. Among the 

 originators of that laudable yet fruitless attempt, Dr. 

 Jacob Bigelow was conspicuous for his zealous efforts to 

 insure success ; and, although disappointed in his expec- 

 tations at that time, he never abandoned the hope of an 

 ultimate triumph over the numerous obstacles which 

 were to be encountered in the achievement of such a 

 momentous project." 



We have further proof that the rural cemetery had 



1 Transactions of the Mass. Hort. Society for 1832, p. 60. 



