248 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



He was the son of Frederick and Martha Maynard Crosby, and, 

 after receiving the primitive education of the country district 

 school of eighty years ago, was reared as a farmer. Arriving at 

 manhood in 1826, he turned his steps toward the old town of 

 Dorchester, whence the earl}' settlers of his native town had gone 

 forth, and where he continued to reside until 1834, when he mar- 

 ried Lydia Everbeck, May 24, and removed to Roxbury, where he 

 lived with Aaron Davis "Williams. His wife Lydia died June 8, 

 1841, and on the 27th of December, 1842, he married Alice Ross, 

 who survives him. 



He continued to reside in Roxbury until 1847, when he removed 

 to Arlington, where, after three years' residence, he made bis 

 home on Lake Street, at what is now known as Lake Station, 

 where he began an experience of nearly forty years as a market 

 gardener, in which he had no superior and few equals. 



He joined the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in October, 

 1850, and was for fourteen years, from 1872 to 1885 inclusive, a 

 valuable member of the Vegetable Committee. He joined the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural Society August 17, 18G7. 



He was very fond of the pursuit of agriculture, in which he 

 enjoyed an enviable reputation, and took a sincere and honest 

 pride ; he earnestly strove to attain excellence, and in the effort 

 to improve the quality of market vegetables he originated the 

 excellent variety of sweet corn which was named for him. 



He was not a man to be interested in theology in the abstract, 

 but he was for years a member of the Orthodox Congregational 

 Parish of Arlington, a constant attendant at public worship, and a 

 believer in the Christian faith, although not a communicant. 



Upright and downright, with a heart free from guile, he implic- 

 itly followed the teachings of the (J olden Rule, as a part of his 

 nature, rendering to every man exact justice, and doing to all 

 others as he would desire to be done by. 



He had little taste for literature or art, and the only field sport 

 that he enjoyed was that of rifle-shooling. 



Fond of children and pets, his life flowed on serenely to its close, 

 and the sincerity of his character was best evidenced by the 

 attaclnncnts which were formed for liiui b\' tlie men of a younger 

 generation. 



Lamenting as he did in later years the defects of his early edu- 

 cation, he was constant in his efforts to aid in the improvement of 



