3T 



ter and Maiblehead and Amesbnry, and Peabody and 

 Danvers, and Andover and Georgetown, have become 

 large towns — some of them have been born. The prod- 

 ucts of our industry have reached the fabulous sum of 

 nearly $82,000,000 annually; schools have multiplied 

 in greater ratio than the increase of population ; libra- 

 ries and institutions of learning and religion have grown 

 up on every hand. The early benefactions which made 

 the name of Phillips and Bartlett illustrious among us, 

 have been eclipsed by the larger bounties which Peabody 

 and Heard have bestowed on their native county. And 

 while the founders of this Society could look back over 

 a refulgent history of statesmanship and scholarship and 

 patriotic valor, recalling the memory of their own sons 

 who fell in the early days of the revolution — the gallant 

 deeds performed by the men of Essex on land and sea 

 in the subsequent war — the courage and wisdom of their 

 own Pickering, the friend of Washington, the incorrupt- 

 ible Roman of the young republic — the comprehensive 

 power of Parsons, the statesman and jurist — the saga- 

 cious merchants who at that time had explored unknown 

 seas, and given the ports of Essex county a name 

 throughout the world — what an abounding treasure of 

 greatness has accumulated for us of this later day. In 

 letters and law and public service we point now to Pres- 

 cott, and Hawthorne, and Whittier, and Story, and Gush- 

 ing, and Rantoul, born and nurtured on our own soil. 

 The part, too, which Essex County performed in the pat- 

 riotic services of our first heroic period has not been for- 

 gotten by her sons of our day. The lesson taught by 

 Pickering at North Bridge, and by the men of Danvers 

 who marched to the fore front for the freedom of their 

 country, is fresh in our memory, and guides us still. 



