116 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



For thirty-six years I have officially devoted to the care and 

 improvement of Mount Auburn Cemetery most of the leisure time 

 which I had to spare from professional labors, and have gratui- 

 tously watched over its interests as over those of my own child. 

 The chief responsibility in its early and difficult stages was 

 thrown upon me. The designs as well as contracts of all the 

 public structures, such as the gate, the iron fence, the chapel, and 

 the tower, it is well known were made and furnished b} T me. The 

 selection of the subjects and the artists of the historical statues in 

 the chapel was, by vote of the Trustees, referred to me alone, as 

 well as the duty of importing and placing them in their present site. 



In questions of seemingly opposite interest, which have some- 

 times arisen between the Horticultural Society and the Proprietors 

 of Mount Auburn, I have invariably used my humble influence 

 to prevent litigation, and to promote friendly co-operation between 

 parties whose true interests were obviously identical, and of whose 

 eventual harmony the fruits are now sufficiently apparent. 



Conscious that I am the only individual without whom Mount 

 Auburn would never have existed, nor the funds realized with 

 which Horticultural Hall has been built, I have taken the liberty 

 to call the attention of the Society to the fact, that in all the late 

 publi cations, discourses, and records of the Society, all notice 

 of my name has been avoided, and the credit given to other 

 parties, whom I now gratefully recall as friendly and efficient 

 collaborators, but into whose minds the enterprise of Mount 

 Auburn Cemetery, the first of its kind in our country, was, by their 

 own testimony, first and solely introduced by me. 



I have the honor to be with great respect, yours, 



JACOB BIGELOW. 



BOSTON, September 20, 1866. 



This letter was communicated to the Society at the 

 annual meeting, October 6, when, after remarks by 

 Marshall P. Wilder, commending the services of Dr. 

 Bigelow, it was voted, on motion of Mr. Wilder, that a 

 committee of three, of which the president should be 

 chairman, be appointed to take into consideration the 

 letter of Dr. Bigelow, and the recognition of his labors 

 in connection with the Society and Mount Auburn 



