Xo. 4.] ADDRESS OF AVELCOME. 17 



new settlement in which he was interested in New England. 

 This name does not denote — as its modern corrupted pro- 

 nunciation may lead you to believe — that the chief occu- 

 pation of the people in this town is, or has been, the framing 

 of houses, or of pictures, or even of statutes. This name is 

 not Frrimingham, but is Frilmingham. This difterence in 

 the pronunciation is not mere affectation. The older pro- 

 nunciation should be encouraged, both for historical accuracy 

 and particularly in order that the true meaning of the name 

 ma}^ not be forgotten. We are told that the early meaning of 

 the English name Framlinghame is "Stranger's Home," — a 

 refuge, a haven, a home for all newcomers. This very name, 

 therefore, which never yet has been duplicated in the entire 

 United States, requires that we meet 3^ou as you come among 

 us with a smile of welcome and a hearty hand grasp of 

 cordial greeting. 



"VYe welcome you jSrst as individuals. Many of you will 

 find old friends among the people whom you will meet at 

 these meetings and on our streets ; and those of you who 

 do not know us now as old friends, we trust hereafter in 

 recollection of these meetings will permit us to greet 3'ou as 

 friends. 



But we welcome you even more cordially because you 

 come to us as representatives of the great agricultural inter- 

 ests of Massachusetts. In some respects we have outgrown 

 the simpler conditions of an agricultural town. IMany of 

 our people are engaged in other enterprises, and the signs 

 of activity in our factories and on our streets give evidence 

 of enterprise in other pursuits. But we were one of the 

 earliest farming districts in the colonial period. Before our 

 town was incorporated, this section of southern jNIiddlesex 

 was known as Danforth's Farms. Probably over these level 

 fields the Indians had their favorite hunting grounds. Un- 

 doubtedly, season after season, the}' enriched the land with 

 the fish which thev found in these ponds and rivers, and 

 planted and harvested the Indian corn, — the j-ellow maize, 

 so fittingly described by one of the leading American poets, 

 whose frequent presence in Framingham we so joyfully 

 welcome. Miss Edna Dean Proctor, as Columbia's emblem. 



