242 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Simple justice alone to his memory, justice to the noble profes- 

 sion of which he was so bright and conspicuous an ornament, 

 requires that we bear witness to that which we have seen and heard, 

 as his life has been openly lived before our eyes and against which 

 no dissenting voice is raised. 



Mr. Dawson was born in East Riding, Yorkshire, England, in 

 1841. He came with his mother to this country as a child ejght 

 years of age. He started in gardening in the nurseries of his 

 uncle at Andover, Massachusetts. After a few years he went to 

 the Hoveys in Cambridge whose nurseries were then the only great 

 establishment of the kind in the country. 



His enlistment in the Civil War interrupted his horticultural 

 studies until his discharge in 1864, after which he again resumed 

 work at Hoveys where he gained much valuable experience which 

 fitted him for higher duties and greater responsibilities. The 

 opportunity soon presented itself and Mr. Dawson accepted a 

 position under Francis Parkman of the School of Horticulture at 

 the Bussey Institution in Jamaica Plain and soon afterward became 

 identified with Professor Charles S. Sargent in the planting and 

 development of the Arnold Arboretum. Many of the trees which 

 are growing there today on its broad acres were reared by him from 

 the seeds and there are oaks which now rise fifty feet high from 

 the acorns he planted. 



Mr. Dawson was regarded by horticulturists as one of the world's 

 greatest gardeners and in 1910 was awarded a Medal of Honor by 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, of which he was a mem- 

 ber, for having contributed more than any one else to the advance- 

 ment of horticulture during that year. He was also a member of 

 the Society of American Florists and the Gardeners' and Florists' 

 Club of Boston of which he was president in 1893 and at the time 

 of his death an honorary member. 



On December 1st, 1866, Mr. Dawson married Mary McKenna 

 who passed on several years ago. Eight children were born of 

 this union, six of whom survive him. Mr. Dawson was a bright 

 and shining light in the firmament of the horticultural world. In 

 his home life he exemplified the virtues which adorn the faithful 

 loving husband, the affectionate father, and the patriotic citizen. 

 He radiated the brightness of a cheerful disposition and his genial 



