1 7 8 



1818. His age was 72 years, 5 days. He with his 

 brothers were years ago associated in business together in 

 New York and Salem, engaged in Buenos Ayres trade, im- 

 porting and exporting and dealing largely in hides. They 

 also started in the grain business and for many years ran 

 packets with freight between Salem and New York. It 

 was during or soon after the Civil War, Mr. Ropes en- 

 gaged in business on his own account. Of late years he 

 had carried on the flour and grain business, at one time 

 alone and later in company with his son, Mr. Willis H.' 

 Ropes. Besides this business, he was also interested in 

 tanning and currying leather in company with Col. Jos. A. 

 Dalton, but discontinued within a year or two. He served 

 in the common council in 1859 and was a member of the 

 school committee for ten or twelve years, beginning with 

 1802. Mr. Ropes was a man of integrity of character and 

 of great industry, always interested in the business welfare 

 of Salem, an active and devoted member of the first Board 

 of Trade. Of very charitable disposition, never withholding 

 his subscription to any deserving object to which his atten- 

 tion was called. 



Mr. James Chamberlain died in Salem, June 14, 

 18y0, at the age of 87 years, 27 days. He was born in Sa- 

 lem, May 18, 1803. For. many years he had been in the 

 grocery business, doing a very large and successful 

 business. He was a quiet and unobtrusive man and 

 not ambitious of personal distinction. Nevertheless he 

 was elected captain of the Salem Mechanic Light Infantry 

 in 1824, succeeding the late Capt. Jeremiah S. Perkins. 

 In 1836, 7 and 8, he was a member of the General Court. 

 He was chosen a director in the Holyoke Ins. Co., Dec. 5, 

 1856, and of the Salem Bank, Oct. 18, 1858, both of which 

 positions he held to the time of his death. A man of the 

 strictest integrity, uniformly even tempered and a good citi- 

 zen in every relation and walk of life. 



